Sunni Arabs complain of Iraq election fraud

Fear of underrepresentation
Sunni Arabs fear being underrepresented and marginalized. Most estimates say they make up about 20 percent of the country, though al-Dulaimi claimed they comprise about 40 percent — a common Sunni assertion.

Preliminary results from 11 of the 18 provinces showed the United Iraqi Alliance winning strong majorities not only in Baghdad but in the largely Shiite provinces in the south.

A senior member of the alliance, Hussain al-Shahristani, predicted the bloc would receive about 130 seats — 10 fewer than they have now. But unlike last January’s elections, which most Sunni Arabs boycotted, this time the Sunnis voted in large numbers.

Kurdish parties were overwhelmingly ahead in their three northern provinces, while results from one of the four predominantly Sunni Arab provinces, Salahuddin, showed the Sunni Arab minority winning in a landslide.

But even the Kurds, the junior partner in the current government, were leveling accusations of irregularities. Iraq’s Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani, said 25,000 residents of Sulaimaniyah, 160 miles northeast of Baghdad, were not on the rolls despite having voted in the last election.

The accusations came as the U.S. ambassador warned that sectarianism only increases the risk of violence and said Iraq needs a governing coalition which bridges the divide.

“It looks as if people have preferred to vote for their ethnic or sectarian identities,” Khalilzad said. “But for Iraq to succeed there has to be cross-ethnic and cross-sectarian cooperation. Sectarianism undercuts prospects for success and increases the risk for conflict among sects.”

Shiites likely to need coalition partner
When the votes are certified, the Shiite religious bloc will likely fall short of the 184 seats necessary to form a government and will have to find a coalition partner in the 275-member parliament.

Although the trend of ethnic and religious-minded voting did not come as a surprise, the Bush administration had hoped for a better showing by the Allawi’s alliance.

The election was to select Iraq’s first full-term parliament since the end of Saddam’s dictatorship in 2003. On Wednesday, Saddam was expected to return to court for his trial on mass murder charges.

Violence persisted Tuesday.

In Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, gunmen killed a Sunni clerics, Imam Amer al-Alwani, outside his home, police said. In the west of the city, clashes between a U.S. patrol and insurgents trying to plant a bomb wounded an insurgent, police said.

In the capital, a driver for the Jordanian Embassy was kidnapped as he drove to work. The Jordanian was the latest of some 240 foreign hostages seized in Iraq.

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