Global General

Turnout for Iraq election solid at 62%

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-03-09 00:55
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The powerful Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (ISCI), which is part of that bloc, said the vote appeared evenly split between Maliki and INA in early counting.

Allawi's bloc, Iraqiya, was running third, ISCI said.

Thaer al-Naqeeb, an Iraqiya candidate and close aide to Allawi, said results were not clear so far but initial figures put Iraqiya ahead in the northern and western provinces. Iraqiya got between 70-90 percent of votes in those provinces, he said.

In Iraqi Kurdistan, a new party was challenging President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of two groups that have dominated Kurdish politics for decades.

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A robust showing by the reformist Goran list could weaken the hand of the PUK and Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party in any coalition talks in Baghdad. The relative cohesion of the Kurds has allowed them to play kingmaker in the past.

"It was a generally fair election," said a source in Barzani's office, adding that he did not believe Goran had done as well as some people had expected.

Whoever ends up with the biggest share of parliament's 325 seats, negotiations to form a new government are likely to take weeks if not months.

The ensuing political vacuum will test Iraq's fragile democracy as the United States halves its troop presence to 50,000, ending combat operations by August 31, and withdraws completely by the end of 2011.

Iraqi factions took five months to cobble together a coalition government last time.

"A Sunni Arab and secular undervote is likely, in large measure because of the confusion, cynicism and anger over the disqualification of many of their candidates," said Wayne White, a scholar at the Middle East Institute.

"This imbalance, although certainly not as severe as witnessed in the 2005 elections, will have to be addressed during the jostling to form a government following the elections if current levels of stability are to be sustained."

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