Official: Iraq to Certify Election Results

BAGHDAD, Iraq – An insurgent bomb attack on a convoy of U.S. troops and Iraqi National Guardsmen wounded seven Iraqis on Thursday, and elections officials they were close to certifying vote results and allocating seats for the National Assembly

Electoral Commission official Adel al-Lami said results from the landmark Jan. 30 election would be announced at a press conference in Baghdad on Thursday.

The commission first announced results from the ballot on Sunday. The clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance got 48 percent of the vote for the National Assembly, the Kurdish alliance took 26 percent and interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite supported by Washington, won 14 percent.

A deadline to file complaints expired Wednesday.

The attack on the convoy occurred in Hawija, about 150 miles north of Baghdad, on the main road running north to Kirkuk, said Maj. Gen. Anwar Mohammad Amin. No Americans were wounded, he said.

If provisional results of the election stand, the United Iraqi Alliance will have 140 seats in the assembly, short of the two-thirds majority needed to control it. Building a coalition with the Kurdistan Alliance, which will likely hold 75 seats, will be crucial.

Once the results are certified, the present government must set a timetable for installing the new government. There have been no indications on how long the process, which is dependent on back-room dealmaking among the parties, might take.

The certification comes as top Shiite politicians prepare to choose a nominee for prime minister. A secret ballot is expected to take place Friday to decide a two-man race between Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Ahmad Chalabi.

The contrast between the two candidates is stark and reveals a division within the clergy-endorsed alliance, made up of 10 major political parties and various allied smaller groups.

Al-Jaafari, 58, is the leader of the religious Dawa Party, one of Iraq’s oldest parties, known for its popularity and close ties to Iran. Although al-Jaafari is a moderate, his party’s platform is conservative.

Chalabi, 58, who left Iraq as a teen, leads the Iraqi National Congress and had close ties to the Pentagon before falling out of favor last year after claims he passed intelligence information to Iran.

A secular Shiite, Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress is an umbrella for groups that included Iraqi exiles, Kurds and Shiites. Much of the supposed intelligence his group supplied on Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction programs failed to pan out.

Al-Jaafari was considered the leading contender Wednesday, though Chalabi’s aides said their man had enough votes to win.

A close aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the spiritual leader of Iraq’s Shiite Muslims, said the alliance’s leaders will visit the grand ayatollah’s office in Najaf to get his blessing for their choice. In the event they can’t agree, al-Sistani will make the final decision, the aide said.

Kurdish parties have apparently agreed to support the alliance’s candidate for prime minister in return for the largely ceremonial presidency.

Sunni Arabs, favored under Saddam Hussein’s rule, largely stayed away from the polls. But the Shiites must move cautiously if they want to form an inclusive government.

The government that takes power will face the challenge of quelling a violent insurgency, largely being waged by Sunni extremists.

The case of a captive Italian journalist, kidnapped Feb. 4 in Baghdad, took an alarming turn Wednesday as a videotape delivered anonymously to Associated Press Television News showed Giuliana Sgrena speaking in both French and Italian as she pleaded for the Italian government to withdraw its troops.

“You must end the occupation, it’s the only way we can get out of this situation,” the 56-year-old journalist for the communist daily Il Manifesto pleaded. There was no indication when the tape was made, and the words “Mujahedeen Without Borders” appeared in digital red Arabic script on the video. The group was previously unknown.

The video was released hours before the Italian senate voted to extend Italy’s troop deployment through June. Il Manifesto strongly opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and has fiercely criticized Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi’s decision to deploy 3,000 troops in the U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq.

In western Baghdad late Wednesday, guards for Shiite Muslim worshippers shot dead a man they said was readying to detonate an explosive-laden belt he was wearing, police Capt. Talib Thamir said.

Also Wednesday, unidentified gunmen attacked two trucks carrying food supplies believed destined for the Trade Ministry, killing six men including the drivers, a police officer said on condition of anonymity. The attack took place at al-Suwayra, 25 miles south of Baghdad.