BAGHDAD, 26 October 2005 — Iraq’s constitution, a post-Saddam Hussein milestone for the nation, has been adopted despite strong opposition from disaffected Sunni Arabs, officials announced yesterday.

“It is an accomplishment for all Iraqis,” said commission spokesman Farid Ayyar in announcing the results 10 days after the landmark referendum on a charter that lays down a democratic future for the violence-wracked country.

Nationwide, 78 percent of Iraqis voted for the constitution, the commission said, while opponents failed to muster a two-thirds majority against in at least three of Iraq’s 18 provinces which would have meant its rejection.

The final results showed that only two provinces, the insurgent stronghold of Anbar in the west and Saddam Hussein’s home region of Salaheddin, had mustered a “No” vote of at least two-thirds — one short of the three provinces necessary to veto the measure. The northern province of Nineveh, thought to represent a third possible “No” due to its large population of Sunni Arabs, ended up with only 55.08 percent of voters rejecting the charter.

“It’s a civilized step that puts Iraq on the path to democracy, to rebuilding our new Iraq,” said Ayyar.

The United States and Britain were among the first to congratulate Iraq on the result.

“It’s a landmark day in the history of Iraq,” White House spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters. Britain hailed the result as a milestone and looked forward to “maximum participation” in new elections to be held in two months. “The Iraqi people have shown again their determination to defy the terrorists and take part in the democratic process,” said Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.

But 2.1 million of Iraq’s 15.5 million voters nonetheless opposed the constitution, largely a result of fears among Sunni Arabs that it will place too much power in the hands of regions and lead to a break-up of Iraq.

“The referendum led to a split instead of a union,” said political science professor Hasan Bazaz. “There is polarization from the results because there was no accord among (Sunni and other) constituencies on the text.” The United Nations called for renewed efforts to woo disenchanted Sunnis away from the insurgency and into the political process. “The results of the referendum have indicated the degree of political polarization in Iraq,” said UN envoy Ashraf Jehangir Qazi. “This poses an ongoing challenge for all Iraqis and underscores the importance of an inclusive national dialogue.”

The sentiment was echoed by EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner who said, “It is important that we see an even more inclusive process, to elect an administration that is fully representative of the whole country.”

Arab Sunni leaders rejected the referendum, saying “fraudulent” results would discourage them from taking part in December elections and fuel insurgent violence.

“Violence is not the only solution, if politics offers solutions so that we can move in that direction. But there is very little hope that we can make any gains in the elections,” said Sunni leader Saleh Mutlaq.

“I call on the free world. I call on the United Nations to intervene. We will not accept any referendum or election without international observers.”

Carina Perelli, head of the UN team providing technical assistance to the Iraqi government, told reporters the election results should be trusted.

Iraqi officials had earlier said they were auditing early results which indicated more than 90 percent of voters backed “Yes” in certain areas, leading some opponents of the charter to question whether the results were being fixed.

US officials sponsoring the political process had described the election, in which many in the disaffected Sunni Arab minority took part, as a success for democracy.

But Mutlaq and other prominent Sunnis who had been involved in negotiations on the draft charter accused the Iraqi electoral commission of bowing to US pressure and fixing results in favor of Shiite and Kurdish leaders dominating the government.

The Iraqi government has been struggling to draw Sunnis into the political process but the charter has deepened sectarian divisions which have generated talk of civil war.