BAGHDAD, 11 February 2006 — Iraq’s Shiite United Iraqi Alliance was confirmed yesterday as the winner of December’s elections, paving the way for the opening of Parliament and forming a new government.
Within minutes of the final election tally, a remote-controlled car bomb exploded near a Sunni mosque in southern Baghdad killing seven Sunnis and wounding 22.
Chief Election Commissioner Adel Al-Lami read the final certified results of the polls, which were unchanged from provisional ones announced on Jan. 20.
Yesterday’s figures for the 275-member Parliament gave 128 seats to the conservative Shiite alliance, 53 to the Kurdish Alliance, 44 to the religious Sunni-led National Concord Front and 25 to former Premier Iyad Allawi’s Iraqi National List.
The remaining 25 seats are held by smaller parties. Boosted by its own results and by the support of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr and two MPs close to him, the Shiite alliance, which is dominated by religious parties, will select its prime ministerial candidate today.
The two main competitors are current Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari of the Dawa Party and Adel Abdul Mahdi of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).
Political parties had filed 24 complaints against the results, which were examined by the Transitional Electoral Panel. Lami said “these did not change the results.”
The new Parliament, which will have more than 25 percent women MPs, is expected to sit within the next 15 days, as per the new constitution.
Commenting on the results, US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said: “We hope that this will be a government based on national unity, formed without regard to sectarianism, committed to peace and with capable ministers who place loyalty to Iraq above that of loyalty to faction.
