Shi'ite alliance tops vote in Iraq

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BAGHDAD -- A Shi'ite alliance endorsed by the nation's top cleric will command a narrow majority in Iraq's new national assembly, according to final results released yesterday from the historic Jan. 30 elections.

A coalition of Kurdish parties placed second with about one-quarter of the seats and will be a crucial power broker in the 275-seat assembly, which will name a government and write a permanent constitution. Both actions require agreement by a two-thirds majority.

A secular party led by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi came a disappointing third with about 15 percent of the seats, and President Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer's secular Sunni party got five seats.

Only a dozen of the 111 slates that contested the elections made their way into the assembly, and none of the others mustered enough seats to play a major role in the political horse trading that already has begun.

Sunni Muslims, who dominated government and civil life for decades under Saddam Hussein, were virtually shut out, apart from Mr. al-Yawer's five seats and one other. Although the overall turnout topped earlier estimates of 60 percent, it was 2 percent in Sunni-dominated Anbar province, home of the insurgent-troubled cities of Fallujah and Ramadi.

Shi'ite leaders, however, quickly promised to find ways to include willing Sunnis in drafting a constitution.

"Iraqis want freedom and democracy," said Hussein Shahrestani, a Canadian-educated nuclear scientist who played a key role in creating the winning United Iraqi Alliance.

"We are even more insistent now than before that [the government] should be an exercise of unity and participation. We need a government of national unity."

In Washington, President Bush congratulated the Iraqi people "for defying terrorist threats and setting their country on the path of democracy and freedom. And I congratulate every candidate who stood for election and those who will take office once the results are certified."

The Shi'ite alliance, endorsed by Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani, netted a little more than 48 percent of the vote but will get 140 assembly seats. That is because ballots cast for slates that failed to get enough votes for even one seat were discounted altogether, election officials said. The results will be certified formally in three days.