Iraq votes for new Parliament
Good turn out marked the Parliamentary elections held in Iraq on Sunday (Mar 07) despite a barrge of sustained mortar and rocket attacks in Baghdad and other cities. The election is seen a prelude to end of the American military presence in Iraq though US has set no time table as such officially.
It will take a while for the votes to be counted and results declared.
The last parliamentary elections held in 2005 were also marred by a high level of violence; officials said the turn out higher than expected. It was certainly higher than the 2005 vote, officials were quoted as saying in media despatches.
Unlike the last time, this time, the Sunnis came out in strength to the polling booths . They outnumbered the Shiites in some places particualrly in Baghdad and the south..
Two coalitions are vyving for a clear mandate – the one led by Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who has campaigned for a second four-year term on improved security in Iraq, and another led by the former interim leader, Ayad Allawi, who has promised to overcome Iraq’s sectarian divides.
Reports said Maliki’s supporters are already claiming that his coalition has won a majority of votes in Baghdad, Basra, Najaf and other largely Shiite provinces in the south. Ayad Allawi (also a Shiite,) led coalition appears to have done well among Sunnis in Anbar, Salahuddin, Nineveh and Diyala.
Iraq’s Parliament is a 325-member House.
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