Iraqis urged to unite and build future of nation

IRAQI prime minister Iyad Allawi urged the country to unite after an election lauded by world leaders as a historic breakthrough that must not be undermined by sectarian conflict.

The election commission said a majority of voters took part in the election in most provinces, a more robust turn-out than many expected, and Iraqis earned praise from across the world for braving threats and deadly attacks to cast their ballots. However, in a stark reminder of the presence of insurgents in the country, militant group Ansar Al-Sunna claimed it shot down a British transport plane that crashed on Sunday, leaving 10 troops dead.

At least 44 people were killed in other attacks on poll day despite a security clampdown, although the scale of the violence was much lower than feared.

Officials completed the first phase of the laborious counting process, which could last for up to 10 days, as political leaders looked ahead to the eventual formation of a new government after the first free election in half a century.

“All Iraqis should work together to build the future of our nation, whether you voted or not,” said Mr Allawi, whose country is still riven by splits between its Shi’ites, Sunni Muslims, Kurds and other communities. “It is up to all of us to build a new country based on prosperity and stability. It is the time to overcome all problems. I and the rest of the interim government will work to ensure the success of this process.”

World leaders were lavish in their praise for the vote, which marked a turning point for the country almost two years after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in a US-led war after decades of repressive rule.

US President George Bush, who ordered the invasion to topple Saddam in March 2003, called the vote a “great and historic achievement” but cautioned more hard work remained in the war-weary state.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, a member of the occupying coalition, said the election would help drag other Arab countries out of the Middle Ages.

But there were also caveats, mainly related to the threat posed to Iraq’s stability by its diverse ethnic and religious make-up.

The China Daily, seen as a mouthpiece of the Beijing government, said the “vote could provoke a backlash, deepen sectarian divisions and push Iraq closer to civil war”.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul expressed fears of an ethnic confrontation between Kurds and others in the northern oil city of Kirkuk, saying the “situation has reached dangerous proportions“.

Gul said Ankara would not be a “spectator” if the city descended into turmoil. According to the two main Kurdish factions, the Kurdish alliance was ahead in elections in Kirkuk as well in its far northern stronghold.

The Iraqi electoral commission said that 60%-75% of voters cast their ballots. “The reports from the provinces are very good. In most of the provinces a majority of voters came out,” said Harith Mohammed Hassan, deputy chief of the Independent Election Commission of Iraq (IECI).

However, there were still concerns that the election was not representative, as many of Iraq’s once dominant but minority Sunnis did not vote owing to poor security and boycotts by their political parties.

The majority Shi’ites and Kurds concentrated in the north voted in high numbers, flocking to the polls with voters expressing their emotion at a chance to reverse decades of oppression.

“We will win our first victory in a hundred years,” enthused Taher Rahim, cafe owner in Baghdad’s Sadr City Shi’ite quarter. “We have been kept from power for a hundred years.”

Turn-out was much lower in Sunni Arab strongholds in central Iraq, where the insurgency has been concentrated. Although they make up only 20% of the population, Sunnis formed the elite under Saddam.

But the election commission said that even in the provinces hit by widespread insurgency the number of voters was higher than expected despite boycott calls from clerics and politicians.

Allawi said government would work to include disaffected Sunnis in the process to draw up the constitution before elections for a permanent government in December. The election could see the majority Shiite community take control of the government in an Arab country for the first time in 11 centuries, and Shiite and Sunni political parties face weeks of wrangling with Kurdish and secular rivals over the makeup of the government.