January 22, 2006	Sunday	Zilhaj 21, 1426

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s December election was marked by voting along ethnic and sectarian lines, and setbacks for politicians who sought to break the mould.

The ruling Shia religious-based United Iraqi Alliance, which includes Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari’s Dawa Party and Abdel Aziz Hakim’s Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, won 41 per cent of the vote and captured 128 of parliament’s 275 seats.

But it fell short of its performance last January, when a temporary assembly was elected and when it won an absolute majority with 140 seats.

In that election, the outcome was skewed because the previously dominant Sunni Arab minority largely stayed away from the polls, so the Shias and Kurds were over-represented.

Moving down the slate in December’s election, the Kurdish Alliance, which participated alongside the Shias in the outgoing government, took 21.6 per cent of the vote. But its number of seats dropped from 75 to 53 because the Sunnis turned out in heavy numbers this time round.

The Kurdish Alliance, made up of the formerly rival Kurdish Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, also lost votes to the small Kurdish Islamic Party which broke with it and went on to win five seats.

However, the Kurds will remain nearly certain allies of the Shias in the next government and one of their key figures, Jalal Talabani, is likely to be returned as president of the country for a second term.

Sunni parties, who had only a handful of MPs in the outgoing assembly, more than tripled their representation to 58 seats in the new parliament, to be known as the Council of Representatives.

The main Sunni coalition, the National Concord Front, won 15 per cent of the vote and will be the third largest group in parliament with 44 seats. The National Dialogue Front of Sunni leader Salah Motlak, which opposes the current constitution, won four per cent of the vote and 11 seats.

Three more Sunni MPs were elected on the Reconciliation and Liberation Bloc list.

Controversial secular Sunni politician Mithal al-Allusi, who eschews any kind of sectarian identification and made waves by visiting Israel, took a seat with his Iraqi Nation List.

Two Shias were also elected on the small Risaliyoun party ticket.

The Turkmen Iraqi Front, representing ethnic Turks, won one seat, while the Yazidi religious minority and the Christian Al-Rafidain list took one each.

Former premier Iyad Allawi lost his bid to create a secular-based alliance that would hold the balance of power. His Iraqi National List won only eight per cent of the vote and 25 seats, compared to 40 in the outgoing parliament.—AFP