IRAQ: PEOPLE IN BAGHDAD REACT TO IRAQI ELECTION RESULTS WHICH GIVES SHI'ITE MAJORITY CONTROL OF THE COUNTRY
Record ID:
648455
IRAQ: PEOPLE IN BAGHDAD REACT TO IRAQI ELECTION RESULTS WHICH GIVES SHI'ITE MAJORITY CONTROL OF THE COUNTRY
- Title: IRAQ: PEOPLE IN BAGHDAD REACT TO IRAQI ELECTION RESULTS WHICH GIVES SHI'ITE MAJORITY CONTROL OF THE COUNTRY
- Date: 14th February 2005
- Summary: (BN06)BAGHDAD, IRAQ (FEBRUARY 14, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF TRAFFIC SCENES IN BAGHDAD (2 SHOTS) 0.13 2. PEOPLE STANDING NEAR NEWSPAPER STALL 0.19 3. CU: MAN READING NEWSPAPER 0.26 4. NEWSPAPERS AT STREET STALL 0.32 5. CLOSE OF FRONT PAGE OF "BAGHDAD" NEWSPAPER OF PRIME MINISTER IYAD ALLAWI WITH HEADLINE SAYING "ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE ELECTION RESULTS" 0.37 6. CLOSE OF ANOTHER IRAQI NEWSPAPER 0.43 7. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic), MOHAMMED ABDUL RIDHA, MAN IN THE STREET SAYING: "It is a good sign and we hope for a new Iraq. All the Iraqis hoped success for the 169 list, the United Iraqi Alliance List ." 1.01 8. CU: POSTER SHOWING WOMEN AND MEN DISPLAYING FINGERS STAINED WITH INK 1.06 9. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic), ANOTHER MAN IN STREET, SAYING: "The Alliance list, the People's Union List or the list of the Christians...: It all rests with the Americans." 1.19 10. (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic), ANOTHER MAN IN THE STREET RAHMAN ABOUD, SAYING: "Frankly, I am one of the people who hoped victory for our list, the People's Union List, List 324 because, frankly speaking, this list (The United Iraqi Alliance List) will not achieve the ambitions of the people, I am certain about that because of many reasons, among them is the fact that we barely know anything about the political backgrounds of those people. Whereas, our list, for me as a communist, the party has been struggling for 70 years and we know what it has offered to the people and we know its principles and what it wants to achieve, but I never heard about those peoples (members of 169 list), Badr militia and the others and I do not think that they will achieve our ambitions." 2.01 11. CU: BILLBOARD SHOWING WOMEN DISPLAYING THEIR INK-STAINED FINGER 2.06 12. WS: TRAFFIC IN TAHRIR SQUARE IN BAGHDAD 2.11 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 1st March 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Reuters ID: LVA8GCPDKWBIT4MTD502BBXXDOFN
- Story Text: Iraqis react to election results which gives
Shi'ites majority control of the country.
Shi'ites may have won the lion's share of the vote
in Iraq's elections but the main alliance will still have
to find new allies if it wants a majority in the new
parliament and to secure passage of a new constitution.
And while Sunni Arabs, who for decades provided Iraq's
ruling elite, failed to win more than a sliver of the vote
and will be marginalised in the National Assembly, they
still have to be brought on board for the constitution to
be agreed.
The Electoral Commission said on Sunday the Shi'ite
list, known as the United Iraqi Alliance, took around 48
percent of the vote. But that was less than the bloc had
predicted and leaves it six or seven seats short of a
majority in parliament.
"It is a good sign and we hope for a new Iraq. All the
Iraqis hoped success for the 169 list, the United Iraqi
Alliance List," said Mahmoud Abdul Ridha, a Baghdad
resident.
"It is a good sign and we hope for a new Iraq. All the
Iraqis hoped success for the 169 list, the United Iraqi
Alliance List," said Mahmoud Abdul Ridha, another resident
of Baghdad.
The Shi'ite alliance, drawn up with the blessing of top
Shi'ite cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, won 48 percent of
the vote, with the Kurds coming second with 25 percent.
Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie, a
Shi'ite former exile, described the results as a paradigm
shift for the Shi'ites, calling it "the greatest day of my
life".
But as well as for the Shi'ites, the results mean a
drastically changed political landscape for Sunni Arabs, a
20 percent minority who are now out in the cold after
decades in power under Saddam Hussein.
Yet while Sunnis may be under-represented in the
275-seat assembly, it is still possible for them to play a
role in Iraq's future, and the fact the main Shi'ite
alliance did less well than forecast increases the
likelihood of that happening.
One Iraqi said he had no faith in the electoral system
which he said was dominated and determined by the United
States whose army is still occupying Iraq along with other
coalition forces.
"The Alliance list, the People's Union List or the
list of the Christians, It all rests with the Americans,"
he said, declining to give his name.
Iraq's Communist Party accused the United Iraqi
Alliance of favouring Iran.
"Frankly speaking, this list (The United Iraqi
Alliance List) will not achieve the ambitions of the
people, I am certain about that because of many reasons,
among them is the fact that we barely know anything about
the political backgrounds of those people," said Rahman
Aboud, a member of the Iraqi Communist Party.
The People's Union List of the Communist Party won
only seven seats of the National assembly.
The electoral commission said 8.55 million Iraqis, or
58 percent of registered voters, cast ballots in the
January 30 poll which was Iraq's first multi-party election
for half a century. The number of valid votes was around
8.45 million.
The country is still wracked by violence and
disenchantment over economic and social hardship. The
election results were delayed over allegations of tampering
in a handful of cities and provinces, in particular
Nineveh, Abil and Kirkuk. The news conference in which they
were announced was carried live on Iraqi television as well
as Arabic-language satellite broadcasts.
The national vote was for a 275-member National
Assembly that must agree on a president and two
vice-presidents by a two-thirds majority. Those three
officials will then agree on a prime minister and cabinet,
and their choices must be approved by a majority in the
assembly.
Under the country's transitional constitution, the
parliament is supposed to be seated before March 1. It has
until Aug. 15 to draft a new constitution, which will be
subject to a national referendum on Oct. 15. If it is
approved, elections for a constitutional government will be
held Dec. 15. If it fails, a new election for an assembly
to redraft the constitution will be held.
The Shiite coalition has pushed for one of its
candidates as prime minister, and the leading contenders
appear to be Adel Abdul Mahdi, the current finance
minister; Ibrahim Jafari, the current vice- president and
the head of a faction of the Dawa party; Hussein
Shahristani, a nuclear scientist imprisoned under the
former government and a confidante of Sistani; and Ahmed
Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress.
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