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Sunni leader open to coalition government
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-17 10:00
Jawad al-Maliki, a prominent Shiite legislator, said there was "no doubt that
initial results show that we will be the strong bloc" but that a coalition would
probably be required åK½ï¿½ possibly with some Sunnis.
Another Shiite politician, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, said the Shiites would try to
form an "inclusive" government even if they don't have to. He accused "some
foreign embassies" of "working very hard" to manipulate the results.
Although violence was low on election day, the U.S. Marines said a mortar
attack Friday killed an Iraqi soldier and four children playing soccer in a
school yard that was a polling station in the western Euphrates River valley
town of Parwana. Two children were injured.
About five explosions were heard in central Baghdad on Friday, one of them
from a mortar shell which police said wounded three people near an Interior
Ministry building.
During a press conference, election spokesman Ezzeddin al-Mohamady said
authorities had received 178 election complaints so far, including 35
allegations of "violent interference" by police, soldiers or election workers.
He said most of the rest, 101, were related to campaigning violations such as
using religious symbols in campaign ads.
"Until now, we have not received any complaints about fraud," al-Mohamady
said.
But Nour Eddin Saeed al-Heyaly, an official of a major Sunni Arab party,
claimed 80 Iraqi army soldiers åK½ï¿½ mostly Kurds åK½ï¿½ voted twice in one northern
town. He also said Iraqi soldiers prevented his party's officials from entering
another northern city, Tal Afar. Most soldiers in the area are Shiites or Kurds.
A Western official in Baghdad said the number of complaints was higher than
in the January election and the October constitutional referendum but gave no
comparative figures. The official, who briefed reporters on condition of
anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the irregularities were
not expected to affect the outcome but were considered
serious.
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