What Are the Results of the Election?
Iraqis have been counting ballots since Jan. 31. Elections results were expected Thursday, but a recount of 300 ballot boxes will delay the announcement. Preliminary results show that the United Iraqi Alliance, a coalition of Shiite groups endorsed by the revered Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, leads the field of 111 candidate lists with about half the votes. The Shiite list includes members of the Dawa Party and the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
The Kurds in the north fielded their own slate, the Kurdish Alliance, the only list representing Iraq's substantial Kurdish minority. As of Monday, the Kurdish list was in second place. Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqi National Accord which includes a mix of secular Shiites and Sunnis, was in third place.
An Iraqi woman proudly shows her ink-stained finger indicating she voted Sunday at a Sadr City polling station in Baghdad.
(Majid Saeedi - Getty Images)
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The 275-seat National Assembly will be responsible for writing a new constitution. The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) ran the election and oversees the ballot counting under the electoral law. The IECI is run by Iraqi citizens with the involvement of an international electoral expert chosen by the United Nations. The rules and timing are prescribed by the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL). Challenges may be made to some of the names appearing on party lists under the provisions of the electoral law.
How Many People Voted?
Millions of Iraqis around the country turned out to vote despite threats of violence from insurgents. Officials loosely put voter turnout at around 60 percent nationwide, higher than expected. Although it was notably lower in the primarily Sunni regions of central and northern Iraq where the insurgency has been most active, many more voters went to the polls than expected. The Washington Post’s Anthony Shadid reports "lines that began small at polling stations grew during the 10 hours of voting, sometimes dramatically."
Voices From Iraq: Voters Speak (washingtonpost.com, Jan. 30, 2005)
According to the Electoral Law (pdf), all Iraqi citizens or those entitled to reclaim Iraqi citizenship born before Dec. 31, 1986, were entitled to vote. More than 14 million Iraqis were eligible. Iraqi voters had to register with the IECI. Absentee voting for Iraqis living abroad was allowed in 14 countries including the United States. The Iraq Out-of-Country Voting Program, administered by the International Organization for Migration, ran voting facilities in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Nashville, and the Washington, D.C., area.
What About the Violence?
Since Jan. 30, 168 people have died in post-election violence, according to U.S. military and Iraqi officials. On Monday, 21 people were killed in a suicide attack on an army recruiting station in Baghdad marking the most deadly day since the election was held. At least five other Iraqis were killed in separate violence.
The Washington Post reports that "of 153 Iraqis reported killed in the past nine days, 106 were soldiers, police officers or army and police recruits, according to figures released by the U.S. military and Iraqi authorities." During the same period, 15 U.S. soldiers have been killed.
Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian whose al Qaeda-linked group has asserted responsibility for some of the deadliest attacks in postwar Iraq, claimed responsibility for Monday's bombing. Zarqawi's al Qaeda in Iraq group also took responsibility for many of the election day attacks. At least 45 people, including one U.S. Marine on patrol, were reported killed throughout the country on election day.
The violence on election day was less severe than expected and failed to intimidate many Iraqis from voting. The Post's Anthony Shadid reports that "many Iraqis triumphantly pointed their index fingers, stained with the purple ink that indicated they had voted, and hardly flinched at gunfire and explosions that interrupted the day."
At the Polls: In the Wake of Suicide Blasts, Iraqis Still Went to the Polls (Washington Post, Jan. 31, 2005)
Deadly car bombs, assassination attempts and kidnappings had been almost daily occurrences in Iraq in advance of the elections and since the vote. U.S. and Iraqi officials implemented increased security measures aimed at preventing violence on election day. Travel within Iraq was limited and cars, used frequently in suicide bombing attacks, were banned from the roads. But since election day the violent attacks have persisted and military personnel suggest that it could intensify once election results are announced.
Bush Hails Iraq Vote a Success (Washington Post, Jan. 31, 2005)
What Will Be the Duties of the National Assembly?
The National Assembly will have a one-year mandate to write a new constitution. It will elect a president and deputies who will in turn choose a prime minister. The constitution, expected to be completed by August 2005, must then be ratified by Iraqis in the fall before a permanent government can be elected in December under the rules of the new constitution. The national legislative body will govern all of Iraq’s 18 provinces under the authority of the TAL implemented in March 2004 by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority.
Who Was Running?
There were roughly 19,000 candidates running for National Assembly or regional legislatures. There are 111 party lists, which include more than 7,000 candidates. Names must appear in rank order on the party lists and every third candidate in order must be a woman. Seats will be allocated through a system of proportional representation, meaning that if, for example, a party list gets 20 percent of the vote, then roughly the first 20 percent of the candidates on that party’s list will be seated.
But voters could only choose the party name without viewing the list of individual candidates when casting their paper ballots. Many names were withheld for security reasons after insurgents threatened to harm candidates and their families. This uncertainty over who exactly is on a party list may lead to challenges under the electoral law once votes are counted and seats are distributed among candidates.
To run and take up a seat in the National Assembly, a person must be an Iraqi citizen, must be at least 30 years old, have a high-school diploma and cannot be a high-ranking member of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party or responsible for atrocities under Hussein’s regime. Lower ranking members of the Baath Party who renounced their affiliation can serve. Current members of the Iraqi armed services were barred from running.
