Doug Lorimer
At a December 17 Baghdad new conference, the main Sunni-led alliance that contested the December 15 elections for a new Iraqi parliament hailed the high voter turn-out by Sunni Muslims. Participation by Sunnis in the election had been encouraged by most of the Iraqi anti-occupation guerrilla groups, which had called a truce for the day.
"The resistance did not allow any side to interfere and they stuck by their promise and we thank them in the name of the Iraqi Accordance Front", IAF leader Adnan al Dulaimi, a former Islamic studies professor and outspoken opponent of the US occupation, told reporters. The IAF is led by the Sunni-based Iraqi Islamic Party.
The December 17 London Financial Times reported that Ezzeddin Mohammedi, an official with Iraq's Independent Elections Commission told a new conference that day that up to 70% of Iraq's 15 million eligible voters may have cast ballots. Turnout has been particularly high in Sunni areas, with some reports putting it as high as 90% in Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's western Anbar province and an Iraqi guerrilla stronghold where only 2% of voters turned out for previous ballots organised by the US-imposed, Shiite-dominated, Iraqi government.
Reuters reported on December 15 that exit polls it conducted that day "suggested the Anbar vote was split between" the IAF and "Saleh al Mutlak's secular Iraqi Front for National Dialogue, which has strong Baathist links".
Mohammedi said that 178 complaints had been filed, of which 35 involved "violent interference" by police, army or election workers. He said there had been no reports of outright fraud.
However, Alaa Makki, a candidate for the IAF, gave reporters a list of complaints throughout the country, including observers in mixed Sunni-Shiite neighbourhoods of Baghdad being driven from the polling stations by force and a shortfall in ballots and other voting materials in Sunni towns which left 150,000 people unable to vote.
The Financial Times reported that a Western diplomat "said he had heard reports of irregularities throughout the country, including 'armed gangs or militias affiliated with parties blocking people from voting, or themselves going and voting multiple times'. He said however that the violations were comparatively few compared to the number of polling stations, and did not think that the violations would dramatically affect the outcome."
Across Iraq's 18 provinces voters were offered choice of 7000 candidates from 231 parties, grouped into 21 electoral coalitions, for the 275-seat parliament.
While the results of the December 16 election will not be known until the end of the year, Shiite Muslims, who account for roughly 60% of Iraq's population, appear to have voted overwhelmingly for the United Iraqi Alliance, the coalition of Shiite Islamist parties that held the 48% of the seats in the previous interim parliament. As in January's election for an interim parliament, the UIA promised to demand a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign occupation troops from Iraq.
The non-Arab Kurds, most of whom live in the north of the country, appear to have voted overwhelmingly for the Kurdish coalition grouping the two main Kurdish parties, the Kurdish Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Together, the KDP and PUK held 25% of the seats in the interim parliament,
The current Iraqi government, installed by the US-led occupation forces, is dominated by an alliance between the UIA and these two Kurdish parties. Associated Press observed in a December 16 report on the previous day's elections that in "the eight months since the interim government took office, many of the country's troubles have deepened — Shiite-Sunni tensions are worse, talk of Iraq breaking up along religious and ethnic lines has caught on, the Sunni-led insurgency shows no signs of abating".
The December 19 London Guardian reported that secular Shiite parties "have accused the Shia religious bloc, which dominates the current government, of intimidating voters in Baghdad and many southern cities". One secular Shiite candidate and several campaign workers were murdered on the eve of the elections.
"Complaints from the cities of Dohuk and Kirkuk against the two large Kurdish parties are also said to be numerous", the Guardian reported.
The day after the election, the interim government announced sharp rises in fuel prices, sparking widespread protests. The December 18 Washington Post reported that "the Iraqi government announced Sunday that heavily subsidized fuel prices would rise dramatically, effective immediately...
"Despite possessing one of the world's largest known oil reserves, Iraq imports about [US]$500 million a month in fuel, including gasoline, because its refinery infrastructure is out-dated and in disrepair.
"The increases announced Sunday raise the price of regular gasoline from the equivalent of less than 5 cents a gallon to just under 40 cents.
"In the Shiite holy city of Najaf, about 90 miles south of Baghdad, demonstrators took to the streets, many gathering outside the home of oil minister Bahr Alum and tearing down election posters bearing his image from nearby walls. Moqtada Sadr, the fiery young cleric whose militia last year fought US forces, emerged from his home down the street and calmed the crowd, witnesses said. Similar demonstrations occurred in the southern cities of Amarah and Kut."
According to Baghdad press reports, oil export revenues are still not sufficient to cover the Iraqi state budget. The government is forced to take loans from international banks to cover its running expenses. Daily output of approximately 1.3 million barrels remains far below Iraq's pre-invasion production level of 2.5 million barrels.
The announcement of the eight-fold increase in fuel prices coincided with a visit to Baghdad by US Vice-President Dick Cheney, whose Halliburton oil services company has received $$2.2 billion in contracts to repair and modernised Iraq's oil industry infrastructure.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.