Shiite clergy have big lead in Iraq election

Iraqi officials released the first partial returns from national elections, showing a commanding lead by candidates backed by the Shiite Muslim clergy.

Following the election, Sunni insurgents unleashed a wave of attacks, killing at least 30 people, including three US Marines and a dozen Iraqi army recruits.

Election officials said yesterday that strict security measures may have deprived many Iraqis in the Mosul area and surrounding Ninevah province of their right to vote.

The admission is likely to fuel complaints by Iraq’s minority Sunni Arabs, who make up the heart of the insurgency, that they were not represented in the vote.

The results showed that the United Iraqi Alliance, backed by Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, was leading – with 1.1 million votes out of the 1.6 million counted and certified so far. Some 14 million Iraqis were eligible to vote.

The ticket headed by interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a US-backed secular Shiite, trailed second with more than 360,500 votes.

But the returns – from 10% of the country’s 5,200 polling centres – were too small to indicate a national trend.

Shiites make up an estimated 60% of Iraq’s 26 million people, and the al-Sistani-backed ticket had been expected to roll up such huge margins in the south that the other 110 candidate lists would have to struggle for votes in the rest of the country.

Shiites turned out in huge numbers in cities such as Basra, Nasiriyah, Karbala and Najaf, urged on by clerics who said voting was a religious duty.

However, many Sunni Arabs apparently stayed home, either out of fear of insurgent attacks or in response to boycott calls from their own clerics.

Election officials have said full official results and determine turnout might not be ready until Tuesday.

Seats in the 275-member National Assembly will be determined based on the percentage of the nationwide vote won by each ticket.

Insurgents eased up on attacks following the elections, when American and Iraqi forces imposed draconian security measures.

But starting on Wednesday night, guerrillas launched a string of dramatic attacks.

In the deadliest incident, insurgents stopped a minibus south of Kirkuk, ordered army recruits off the vehicle and gunned down 12 of them, said Maj Gen Anwar Mohammed Amin. Two soldiers were allowed to go free, ordered by the rebels to warn others against joining Iraq’s US-backed security forces, he said.