Shi’ites near majority in Iraq vote

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Final results of Iraq’s December 15
election gave the Shi’ite Islamist Alliance 128 seats, 10 short
of a majority in the 275-seat chamber, an Electoral Commission
official told a news conference on Friday.

The results, in line with expectations and earlier counts,
gave the Kurdish bloc 53 seats and former prime minister Iyad
Allawi’s secular list 25, with two main Sunni Arab groups, the
Accordance Front and the National Dialogue Front, securing 44
and 11 places respectively, Safwat Rasheed said.

Parties have two days to appeal before the results are
certified as definitive.

Some Sunni Arab and secular parties have complained of vote
-rigging in the poll, but international monitors brought in to
address the complaints gave the election process a mostly clean
bill of health in a report on Thursday, clearing the way for
the results to be released.

Many Sunni leaders are already discussing places in a new
coalition government.

The results were released amid tight security — police
blocked off roads between Baghdad and the restive provinces of
Anbar, Salahaddin and Diyala, heartlands of Sunni Arab rebels.