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Former Iraqi Prime Minister wins in parliament election
Source: Agencies |
March 27, 2010, Saturday
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IRAQI former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's bloc won most seats in Iraq's March 7 parliamentary election with two more than outgoing Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's bloc, official results showed yesterday.
According to full results announced by the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), secular leader Allawi's Iraqia bloc garnered 91 seats in the 325-seat Council of Representatives, while the State of Law coalition of his fierce rival Maliki followed with 89 seats.
The Iraqi National Alliance (INA), a coalition led by Shiite religious groups, came third with 70 seats and the Kurdish Alliance gained 43 seats.
The tight race between Allawi, who gained strong support from Sunni provinces and Maliki, a Shiite, raised the prospect of long and potentially divisive talks on forming a new government.
Allawi's victory in the elections will give him a chance to form a new government, but that would not be easy and will need tough bargaining among the political blocs to collect the required coalition of at least 163 seats.
Maliki, for his part, did not accept the results saying they were not final and investigations about alleged fraud are going on.
"We believe that the results are not final and the commission has to go on in revising the complaints which submitted by many blocs," Maliki said in a press conference after the results announcement in the al-Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad's Green Zone late yesterday.
However, Ed Milkert, UN special envoy to Iraq, hailed the polls as "credible" and called on Iraqi parties to accept the results.
"The elections have been credible and we did not find any evidence on major gap in elections," Milkert said in his speech during the press conference.
"The UN calls upon all the political parties to accept the result," he added.
After the announcement of Allawi's victory, hundreds of his supporters gathered in Baghdad and several Iraqi cities to celebrate his winning, singing and dancing while heavy gun shots echoed in the sky.
Also in the day, violence continued in Iraq when twin bombings ripped through a crowded street in the town of Khalis in Diyala province, killing 53 people and wounding 105 others.
According to the provincial police, the blasts took place at sunset when a roadside bomb and a minibus loaded with explosives detonated in a quick succession in the town of Khalis, near the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 kilometers northeast of Baghdad.
The massive blasts struck several popular restaurants and nearby shops, totally destroying 15 shops and restaurants and leaving several vehicles ablaze, along with damaging many others.
Diyala province, which stretches from the eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border east of the country, has long been a stronghold for al-Qaida militants and other insurgent groups since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 despite repeated US and Iraqi military operations against them.
The deadly attack came about an hour before the Iraqi electoral commission announced the preliminary results of the parliamentary elections which is widely expected to shape the future of the war- torn country.
According to full results announced by the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), secular leader Allawi's Iraqia bloc garnered 91 seats in the 325-seat Council of Representatives, while the State of Law coalition of his fierce rival Maliki followed with 89 seats.
The Iraqi National Alliance (INA), a coalition led by Shiite religious groups, came third with 70 seats and the Kurdish Alliance gained 43 seats.
The tight race between Allawi, who gained strong support from Sunni provinces and Maliki, a Shiite, raised the prospect of long and potentially divisive talks on forming a new government.
Allawi's victory in the elections will give him a chance to form a new government, but that would not be easy and will need tough bargaining among the political blocs to collect the required coalition of at least 163 seats.
Maliki, for his part, did not accept the results saying they were not final and investigations about alleged fraud are going on.
"We believe that the results are not final and the commission has to go on in revising the complaints which submitted by many blocs," Maliki said in a press conference after the results announcement in the al-Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad's Green Zone late yesterday.
However, Ed Milkert, UN special envoy to Iraq, hailed the polls as "credible" and called on Iraqi parties to accept the results.
"The elections have been credible and we did not find any evidence on major gap in elections," Milkert said in his speech during the press conference.
"The UN calls upon all the political parties to accept the result," he added.
After the announcement of Allawi's victory, hundreds of his supporters gathered in Baghdad and several Iraqi cities to celebrate his winning, singing and dancing while heavy gun shots echoed in the sky.
Also in the day, violence continued in Iraq when twin bombings ripped through a crowded street in the town of Khalis in Diyala province, killing 53 people and wounding 105 others.
According to the provincial police, the blasts took place at sunset when a roadside bomb and a minibus loaded with explosives detonated in a quick succession in the town of Khalis, near the provincial capital city of Baquba, some 65 kilometers northeast of Baghdad.
The massive blasts struck several popular restaurants and nearby shops, totally destroying 15 shops and restaurants and leaving several vehicles ablaze, along with damaging many others.
Diyala province, which stretches from the eastern edges of Baghdad to the Iranian border east of the country, has long been a stronghold for al-Qaida militants and other insurgent groups since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 despite repeated US and Iraqi military operations against them.
The deadly attack came about an hour before the Iraqi electoral commission announced the preliminary results of the parliamentary elections which is widely expected to shape the future of the war- torn country.
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