Shiite Slate Wins Plurality in Iraq

In western Anbar province, where the insurgency has proved strongest, only 13,893 of 574,138 eligible voters cast ballots -- about 2 percent. In Sunni provinces with higher turnout, Shiite and Kurdish parties performed best, suggesting that even there, most Sunni residents stayed home. In Nineveh province, where the restive city of Mosul is located, the Kurdish coalition won two-thirds of the vote. In Salaheddin province, where former president Saddam Hussein was born, the Shiite coalition won the most votes.

The country, still wracked by violence and disenchantment over economic and social hardship, had eagerly awaited the results, which were delayed over allegations of tampering in a handful of cities and provinces, in particular Nineveh, Irbil and Kirkuk. The news conference in which they were announced was carried live on Iraqi television as well as Arabic-language satellite broadcasts.

Jockeying for Position

Under the country's transitional constitution, the parliament is supposed to be seated before March 1. It has until Aug. 15 to draft a new constitution, which will be subject to a national referendum on Oct. 15. If it is approved, elections for a constitutional government will be held Dec. 15. If it fails, a new election for an assembly to redraft the constitution will be held.

The first step will be the naming of a government, the subject of intense negotiations that began even before the elections. U.S. officials in Baghdad have said they expect the entire government -- the cabinet, prime minister and president -- to be announced at once. With the growing sectarian and ethnic cast to Iraq's politics, those positions likely will be apportioned primarily on the basis of the candidates' communal loyalties, a worrisome sign to secular currents in Iraq.

Officials from various parties have suggested that Jalal Talabani, the leader of one of the two main Kurdish parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, is in line to assume the presidency. His appointment would make a dramatic statement about the shifting political landscape in a largely Arab country where Kurds make up a fifth of the population.

The Shiite coalition has pushed for one of its candidates as prime minister, and the leading contenders appear to be Adel Abdul Mahdi, the current finance minister; Ibrahim Jafari, the head of a faction of the Dawa party; Hussein Shahristani, a nuclear scientist imprisoned under the former government and a confidante of Sistani; and Ahmed Chalabi of the Iraqi National Congress.

The main Shiite coalition is expected to demand the chair of the constitutional committee formed by parliament. Sistani, trained as a jurist, is expected to closely follow the charter's drafting, which may settle some of the most daunting issues before Iraq, such as the role of Islamic law in legislation and the nature of federalism in the country. Another post, still loosely defined, is that of the parliament speaker, which may prove a crucial power broker and could become prominent in bringing a voice to the assembly.

"I think most of the horse-trading will be finished in the next week or so," said an official with the National Democratic Institute, a U.S.-funded group involved in supporting the political process, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Sunni Question

With the vote deemed successful and insurgents unable to unleash the spectacular carnage that many expected on election day, U.S. and Iraqi officials have spoken of having momentum for perhaps the first time since the ouster of Hussein in April 2003. But looming before the government is the question of Sunnis' participation and what role they will play in drafting the constitution.

The Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni-led group that withdrew from the elections, has said it will help write the constitution but not take part in the government. The Association of Muslim Scholars has called the coming government illegitimate, but some leaders have spoken in conciliatory terms and promised to consider a role in drafting the constitution.

Some Sunni leaders have said that much of their engagement may depend on the degree to which the new government moves to eliminate former Baath Party members from the ministries and security forces, the approach it takes toward the insurgency, and whether the United States signals a date, even one that is conditional, for a withdrawal from Iraq of its 150,000 troops. So far, U.S. officials have ruled out any specific timetable, saying their departure depends on progress made in strengthening Iraq's security forces.

Iraq's parties have three days to file complaints about election irregularities. After that, the commission will certify the results and allot seats based on percentages won in the election. Voters also chose 18 provincial assemblies and a Kurdish national assembly. Shiite parties dominated most of the local councils in southern Iraq and Baghdad.

The head of the election commission, Hussein Hindawi, said in an interview that about 12,000 to 15,000 ballots were invalidated because of questions over how the ballot boxes were handled. Eighteen ballot boxes -- plastic tubs that were supposed to remain sealed -- apparently had been stuffed into nine, ballots came in another 14 cartons that were not proper ballot boxes, and 29 other boxes were ruled invalid because they might have been tampered with, he said.

The ballot count announced Sunday will determine the threshold of votes needed to gain a seat in the National Assembly. Of 111 parties on the ballot, only 12 appear to have met that threshold, although one or two of them are so close that challenges to the process may affect their standing.

The actual number of seats that will be allocated to the 12 or so successful parties will depend on a formula to distribute the "partial seats" that would have been accounted for by parties that did not make the cut. That is necessary to fill out the 275-seat assembly. That process is likely to award proportionately more seats to the biggest winner, the Shiite-backed list.

But "nobody knows for sure," said one political observer. "It's a very complex formula."

Special correspondents Omar Fekeiki, Bassam Sebti and Khalid Saffar in Baghdad contributed to this report.