First Iraqi Election Returns Show Commanding Lead for Shiites

[funnymanpants]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/03/international/middleeast/03cnd-iraq.html?ex=1108098000&en=bc52943e0f194853&ei=5070

AGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 3 - Iraqi election officials today released partial returns from Sunday's election that gave the main Shiite group, the United Iraqi Alliance, a commanding lead in the balloting.

Of the 1.6 million votes counted, the Shiite Alliance took approximately 75 percent, according to a provisional breakdown by The New York Times of partial results provided today by the Iraqi Election Commission.

The voting - from about one-tenth of the 5,216 polling stations across six provinces, including Baghdad - shows that the coalition group founded by the interim Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi, known as Iraqi List, was in second place with 19 percent. Of the other 109 individual parties and alliances that contested for the national vote, none appeared to have taken more than 2 percent.

In releasing the figures, election commission officials cautioned political analysts about making projections. But with Shiites accounting for 60 percent of Iraq's population, and with a turnout of as much as 80 percent in the main Shiite population centers in the South, it appeared increasingly likely that the main Shiite alliance would emerge as the overwhelming winner.

[Fridays Child]

1. Knock me over with a feather.

As someone has already pointed out, the results have been sitting on Negroponte's desk for a long, long time.

[bemildred]

2. Well, this IS a stunning upset. nt

[TomClash]

3. No wonder Rice says Iran is "a destabilizing influence in the region" nt