[FREE IRAN Project] In The Spirit Of Cyrus The Great

[Rasker]

Fears of one party dominance not justified; the Sistani backed group will need the cooperation either of the Kurds, or of virtually every other group, to form a constitution. Substantial turnout in every province except Anbar.

Shiites Dominate Iraq Election; Kurds 2nd

By JASON KEYSER
Associated Press Writer




BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The list of candidates representing Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims won the most votes in the nation's Jan. 30 election, followed by the Kurds and then Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's list, Iraqi election officials said Sunday.

The results indicate the long-oppressed Shiites will have to form alliances within the 275-member National Assembly to push through their agenda and select a president and prime minister. The president and two vice presidents must be elected by a two-thirds majority.

The Shiite-dominated ticket received more than 4 million votes, or about 48 percent of the total cast. A Kurdish alliance was second with 2.175 million votes, or 26 percent, and Allawi's list was third with about 1.168 million, or 13.8 percent.

Of Iraq's 14 million eligible voters, 8,456,266 cast ballots for 111 candidate lists, the commission said. That represents a turnout of about 60 percent, several points higher than the predicted 57 percent.

"This is a new birth for Iraq," commission spokesman Farid Ayar said.

The figures also indicate that many Sunni Arabs stayed at home on election day - with less than 4,000 votes cast in Anbar province, a stronghold of the Sunni Muslim insurgency.

Elsewhere Sunday, insurgents attacked a U.S. convoy and a government building near the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, leaving at least four people dead, hospital workers said. Two Iraqi National Guard troops were also killed while trying to defuse a roadside bomb.

Also, gunmen assassinated an Iraqi general and two companions in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad. The attack occurred as Brig. Gen. Jadaan Farhan and his companions were traveling through Baghdad's Kazimiyah district, an Iraqi police officer said on condition of anonymity.
A claim of responsibility for the attack in the name of al-Qaida quickly surfaced on a Web site that often posts statements by Islamic militants. The claim described the brigadier general as a senior commander in the Iraqi National Guard and the guard commander at Taji camp, an American facility about 15 miles north of Baghdad.

There was no way to verify the claim's authenticity.

Meanwhile, U.S. hopes for a larger NATO role in Iraq suffered a setback when German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer on Sunday rejected calls for the alliance to protect U.N. operations there. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan also ruled out a U.N. security role.

In the battle just north of Mosul, insurgents fired on the convoy in Al-Qahira district, leaving at least four people dead and two wounded, doctors at the Al-Jumhuri Teaching Hospital said.

Insurgents also fired a rocket at the governor's building in Mosul, killing one woman and one man, as well as injuring four others, officials at the hospital said. Two Iraqi National Guard troops were killed on Mosul's airport road while trying to diffuse a roadside bomb, police said.

NATO's role in Iraq has been limited to a small training mission in Baghdad and logistics support to a Polish-led force serving with the U.S. coalition. Iraq war opponents led by France and Germany have prevented the alliance developing a wider role, and have refused to send their own troops, even on the training mission.

Fischer, Germany's foreign minister, said his country would not veto a NATO decision to do more, if it was backed by the other 25 allies. But he insisted "we will not be sending soldiers to Iraq."

Fischer emphasized German efforts to help Iraq in other ways - through military and police training outside the country, economic aid and debt relief.

[stefania]

This analysis shows how those who predict a Shiite theocracy are dead wrong.

This is an analysis by an Iraqi blogger :

The Results

http://democracyiniraq.blogspot.com/2005/02/results.html

The Results should be officially announced today. It has become clear that the Shia list will win the most votes. The Kurdish list will come in second, and Allawi will finish third, with about twenty percent of the vote. The strong showing of the Kurdish party is demonstrative to us that not only the Shia, but the Kurds also embraced elections, and made their voice heard. It is for this reason, that Iraq will now be tilted in the favor of the two groups that have been marginalized for so long. What is very important to me is how well the Kurds did. Kurds are not as numeorus as Sunnis, but they have set themselves up to make a great impact on the future of Iraq.

This shows that while many more Sunnis voted than was expected, a good number still did not vote. I am very sad to realize this. It shows that the terrorists were able to scare some, and that some were stupid enough to listen to others and not vote. I hope that the new Iraq, whatever it is, will move Sunnis into participating more clearly. My last post on the idea of theocracy is one possible factor to acheiving this, but now that I see how strongly the Kursd have done, I realize that theocracy is even further from possibility than anyone can imagine. The Kurds are divided in their religious makeup, and it makes no sense for them to support the theocracy.

In a way the Kurdish gains may be good for Sunnis, if Shias overstep their bounds, they can provide a partner with which Sunnis can work and get back into the politica game and thus be involved with Iraq. But knowing the feelings of many Kurds after the terror of Saddam, I dont know how realistic this would be.

Sunnis are now, unfotunately going to learn the hard way the folly of not participating in the elections. The terrorists have stepped up their violence, targetting Shias especially, but I think that their attempts to badger the Shias will only result in more patience, or if the Shia get a real grip on power, bad news for the Sunnis. I can only hope that this is averted though, and that these idiotic terrorists do not cause more trouble inadvertantly, in addition to the deliberate troubles they have caused for all of Iraq.

The atmosphere has changed after the elections, but I must say that some people are growing a bit angry at the fact that the terrorists continue to make attacks. I suppose their patience is wearing thin, they thought that the election would bring a sort of overnight change, but we must all realize and remember that this is a process that will take some time.
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Referendum AFTER Regime Change

"I'm ready to die for you to be able to say your own opinions, even if i strongly disagree with you" (Voltaire)

[ableiter]

Stef, the terrorists are agents for Syria and Iran. They will not stop until Syria and Iran tell them to. That won't happen until Syria and Iran have a reson to tell them to stop. Nothing short of military action will provide that reason. I think as soon as the ING gets up fighting the guerrillas on their own, you will see the US act against both Syria and Iran.
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Anyone who claims you can't buy happiness is a poor shopper.

[Rasker]

It's been said that a single U.S. Navy carrier air battle group could neutralize the entire Syrian Air Force in a day's operations. The Truman is over in the Gulf now, which is a bit far away for operations over Syria (but nice and close to Occupied Iran ), and I don't what the Navy has in the eastern Med right now. If and when a couple of maneuver (armored and mechanized infantry) divisions and a few other elements can be freed up from security duties, the capability would exist to do another "Shock and Awe" all the way to Damascus in 48-96 hours. I don't know why the Damascus regime still wants to play the dangerous game of Yankee killing when they saw what happened to Saddam. Oh well, "whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad".