Preliminary results of Iraqi election indicate role of sectarianism

The Higher Independent Commission For Elections in Iraq admitted the occurrence of several violations in the parliamentary elections which started Thursday with the participation of all political and religious forces in the country.

The official at the commission Ezz Eddine Al-Muhammadi said in a press conference in Baghdad that his commission received 178 complaints concerning violations, including illegal propaganda campaigns, and a strong interference and campaigns during the election "silence phase" and violations of behavior of the observers at the voting centers.

The official indicated that the commission has two committees, one is from the legal committee in the commission and the other is from the bar association, to study all complaints.

Earlier, the spokesman for the elections commission Fred Ayar ruled out in a press conference the announcement of the official results of the elections before two weeks. He expected the final announcement to be by the beginning of January.

The Iraqi official estimated the number of participants in the elections between 10 to 11 million out of 15 million Iraqis eligible to vote in various parts of Iraq, which means if these figures are confirmed to be true, then the rate of participation is estimated to be between 67% and 73%.

These figures reflect the size of turnout in comparison with the 58% who took part in the elections of the Interim national society by the end of January this year and 63% in the referendum over the constitution on October 15th.

Unofficial preliminary results on Friday leaked from officials in the branch committees and the political parties indicate the progress of the Iraqi political forces was for each one in its own region according to the demographic and ethnic division of the areas. To this end, sources in the Elections Commission said that the Shiite United Iraqi Coalition List led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim is making progress in five governorates in south Iraq which are the governorates of al-Najaf, Karbala, al-Qadeseyah, Meisan, and Babel.

These sources explained that the coalition list got between 70 and 86% of the voters while the National Iraqi List led by Eyad Allawi occupied the second place in certain areas in south Iraq.

Moreover, the Sunni Iraqi Coincidence (Tawafuq) front got 10% of the votes to take the third position in Babel governorate.

In Kurdistan area, as was expected, unofficial preliminary results indicate the progress of the Kurdistani Alliance List which brings together the Kurdistani National Federation Party led by Jalal al-Talibani and the Kurdistani Democratic Party led by Masoud al-Barazani and other smaller parties.

As for areas of a Sunni majority in the center of Iraq and in the governorates of Deyali, al-Anbar, Salah Eddine, and Ninwa, the Iraqi Coincidence (Tawafuq) front came in the first place followed by the Iraqi National List led by Eyad Allawi, while the list of the United Iraqi Coalition came fourth.

Meantime, results in Baghdad are still undetermined, due to the ethnic diversity in the capital.