Iraqi parties yesterday geared up for the start of tough negotiations on forming a national unity government after rebels launched a series of attacks to coincide with the release of election results.
Meanwhile, a kidnappers' deadline expired with no word on the fate of US reporter Jill Carroll, whose parents have appealed to captors to spare her life.
Political parties yesterday had 48 hours to appeal the results of the Dec. 15 elections after the electoral commission on Friday released final, but uncertified figures following a month-long investigation into allegations of fraud, which led to the cancellation of less than 1 percent of the ballots.
The elections were marked by voting along ethnic and sectarian lines, with the ruling Shiite 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, winning 128 of parliament's 275 seats.
The Kurdish Alliance came second with 53 seats, while a variety of Sunni Arab parties, who had only a handful of members of parliament in the outgoing assembly, more than tripled their representation to a total of 58 seats in the new parliament, to be known as the Council of Representatives.
The US, Britain and the UN all welcomed the results of the parliamentary elections.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack stressed that Washington wanted majority Shiites, Kurds, Sunni Arabs and others to "work together in cross-sectarian, cross-ethnic efforts to think about forming a government."
"The Iraqi people will be looking to them to form an effective, responsible government that responds to their needs and a government that is responsive to all Iraqis, regardless of ethnic group or religious group," he said.
The spokesman sought to play down deep divisions between Iraq's religious and ethnic communities, saying "identity politics" were the result of [former Iraqi president] Saddam Hussein's repressive rule.
"That's really a vestige of Saddam Hussein's era where he ruled by dividing and conquering," he said.
In Baghdad, it was expected that a number of parties, including some of the Sunni-based factions which had earlier complained of fraud, would appeal the election results to a judicial commission which will have two weeks to rule on the matter before final results are certified and parliament can meet.
But politicians were already gearing up for negotiations on forming a coalition government with the majority Shiites and their Kurdish allies most likely to be calling the shots.
Meanwhile, in the latest violence, five members of the Iraqi president's staff were wounded when a roadside bomb struck their motorcade north of Baghdad, police said yesterday, adding that President Jalal Talabani was not present.
Lieutenant Colonel Abbas Mohammed al-Bayati said the bomb went off as the convoy entered the town of Tuz Khurmatu, 70km south of the northern oil city of Kirkuk late on Friday. A presidential spokesman declined to comment.
Police said an adviser to Talabani was among the wounded, but the extent of his injuries was not known. The convoy had been heading to Baghdad from Kurdistan when it was attacked. Talabani is a Kurd.
Within minutes of the election results being released on Friday, rebels launched mortar attacks on two US bases in the insurgent stronghold of Ramadi, causing minor injuries among US soldiers.
Meanwhile, a delegation from the Council on American-Islamic Relations was due in Baghdad yesterday to appeal for the release of Carroll, abducted in Baghdad on Jan. 7 by gunmen who shot dead her interpreter.
Sunni Arab leaders in Iraq and Muslims around the world pleaded for her release on Friday, hours before the expiration of a deadline set by kidnappers.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS