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Maliki's coalition gains in Iraq election

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-06 09:24

BAGHDAD -- The political coalition backed by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki came first in races for provincial councils in Baghdad and predominantly Shiite provinces.

The Independent High Electoral Commission of Iraq (IHEC) released Thursday the first official tallies five days after the country's landmark polls in a news conference in Baghdad heavily guarded Green Zone.

The results showed that Maliki's State of Law Coalition effectively won the race in Baghdad and eight other Shiite provinces.

Maliki's coalition won 38 percent of the vote in Baghdad while Shiite allies of anti-US cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and Sunni bloc gained 9 percent of votes separately.

Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki waves to supporters during an election campaign rally in Hilla, 100 km (62 miles) south of Baghdad January 26, 2009. [Xinhua]

Maliki also won 37 percent of vote in Iraq's second largest city of Basra, whereas the group backed by the once powerful Shiite Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), headed by Abdul Aziz Hakim, came second with 11.6 percent in the oil-hub city in southern Iraq.

In Shiite province of Kerbala, Maliki's coalition came third behind the list of Yousif al-Habobi, a former Baathist and another Shiite group.

Meanwhile, the results also showed that Sunni Arabs regained power at the expense of the Kurds in the province of Nineveh and Diyala, which remains the last battlefields between US troops and al-Qaida militants.

The Hadbaa List, a secular nationalist group, won 48.4 percent of vote in Sunni Arab dominated province of Nineveh, while the group backed by Kurdish parties came second with 25.5 percent. The Kurds had benefited from a massive Arab boycott in the previous elections in 2005.

The Kurds also were the biggest losers in the volatile province of Diyala, in northeast of Baghdad, where the Accordance Front, a Sunni bloc, which includes the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), came first with 21.1 percent, while the Kurdish parties came second with 17.2 percent.

The Kurdish parties are running the election in the provinces of Diyala and Nineveh alone among other Arab secular and religious(Shiite and Sunni) parties. The elections in the two provinces is a signal that Arabs are determined to resist any part of their provinces to join the three Kurdish provinces of the semi-autonomous region in northern Iraq.

In Anbar province, in western Iraq, tension between rival Sunni parties have been running high after leaders of the Awakening Council groups, or Sahwa militant groups who fought al-Qaida militants in their areas, accused the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), headed by Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, of committing fraud to win majority of the 29-seat provincial council. IIP vehemently denied the accusation.

The tribal leaders in Anbar maybe finally satisfied after they came second with 17.1 percent of the vote following the Sunni secular party lead by Salih al-Mutlaq who won 17.6 of the vote, while the IIP came third with 15.9 percent.

On Saturday, millions of Iraqis headed to cast their ballots in polling stations across 14 out of 18 Iraqi provinces to choose their leaders in provincial councils.