BAGHDAD, 1 February 2005 — Iraq’s interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi called on his countrymen to set aside their differences yesterday, a day after Iraqis voted on religious or tribal lines.
At a news conference, Allawi called on Iraqis to join together to rebuild a society shattered by decades of war, tyranny, economic sanctions and military occupation. “The terrorists now know that they cannot win,” Allawi said. “The whole world is watching us. As we worked together yesterday to finish dictatorship, let us work together toward a bright future — Sunnis and Shiites, Muslims and Christians, Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen,” he said.
Electoral Commission official Adel Al-Lami said a first phase of vote-counting at the individual polling stations was finished. Local centers are preparing tally sheets and sending them to Baghdad where they will be reviewed and vote totals compiled. He said the process could take up to 10 days.
Nevertheless, the country is already focusing on goals almost as daunting as the election itself: Forming a new governing coalition once the vote is known, then writing a constitution and winning trust.
Because of low Sunni turnout, there were fears that many in the influential minority would not accept Sunday’s results.
Shiite leaders gave assurances that they plan to bring the Sunni minority into the fold. “We are looking at ways of including Sunnis,” said Ibrahim Bahr Al-Uloum, a candidate on the United Iraqi Alliance list.
Across much of Iraq there was a sense of accomplishment after the vote, with many people displaying index fingers stained with purple polling ink, proud to have braved insurgent threats against the first multiparty poll in 50 years.
Militants tried to make good on their vow to drench the poll in blood, killing 35 people in suicide bomb and mortar attacks, but the death toll was far below what some had feared.
Interior Minister Falah Al-Naqib attributed the relative calm to a three-day security blitz, in which he said more than 200 suspected insurgents had been detained countrywide.
He said a Yemeni national, two Saudis and an Egyptian were arrested trying to attack voting centers. One Syrian was killed and one of at least seven suicide bombings around Baghdad was carried out by a Sudanese, Naqib said.
He said the insurgents even used a handicapped child as one of the suicide bombers. He did not give details, but police at the scene of one the Baghdad blasts said the bomber appeared to have Down’s Syndrome.
In fresh violence, three US Marines were killed in combat south of Baghdad yesterday and a fourth was killed in a separate operation in the western Anbar province.
Al-Jazeera television aired a videotape o purporting to show an insurgent group firing a missile that downed a British transport plane near Baghdad. The video, issued by the 1920 Revolution Brigades, also showed an explosion at a distance and burning debris of what appeared to be a plane on the ground, including an engine, filmed at close range in a large field.
British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said 10 servicemen were missing, believed killed, in Sunday’s crash.
— Additional input from agencies
