Sunni leader says they want national unity government

Sunni Arab participation in the Iraqi elections could have been even higher if there had there been more polling centres in key Sunni areas, a head of the largest Sunni Arab slate said today.

Adnan al-Dulaimi, of the Iraqi Accordance Front, said that his group’s first task when they enter the parliament will be to work on calming the security situation.

He predicted that the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance will not retain the slim majority they hold in the outgoing parliament because his Sunni group, the Kurdish Alliance and former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s ticket will gain strength.

“It makes the heart happy that all Iraqis went out and participated in the elections in large numbers, even in the areas that are referred to as hot. The situation was quiet, there were not any confrontations or riots,” al-Dulaimi said.

Sunni Arabs went out in large numbers to vote yesterday. Many of them boycotted the landmark January 30 general elections to protest the US-led presence, This left them with only 17 of the 275 seats in parliament and putting the Shiites and Kurds in control.

Al-Dulaimi said he does not have percentage of Sunni turnout but added that if there had been more voting centres in Sunni areas, “the participation would have had been very high".

“Still we believe there was high participation in the so-called hot areas like the provinces of Anbar, Diyala and Salahuddin,” he said.

Once parliament convenes, al-Dulaimi said the first step would be “to try to calm down the situation".

“Maybe through indirect calls, we will convince those carrying arms to take part in the political process,” he added, referring to the Sunni insurgents. He said those contacts would take place through mosques, tribal leaders “and local personalities in cities".

US officials hope that the Sunni Arab participation in yesterday’s elections will lead to a reduction in insurgents attacks. Most of the insurgents are believed to be Sunni Arab, the group that ruled the country for decades until the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in April 2003.

Al-Dulaimi also complained about voting irregularities.

“We have documented reports of rigging,” he said. “There were irregularities in many parts of Iraq especially in the central and southern regions. Elections cards were insufficient and this prevented many would-be voters from casting their ballot. There are centres that were closed or were merged in other centres".

Electoral commission official Farid Ayar said yesterday that they were only able to open 162 polling centres out of 207 in the western predominantly Sunni Anbar province. He sited security as one of the reasons for that.

“Many of our supporters were deprived from participating,” he said. “We will give a detailed report to the elections commission, which was not balanced. Some of its observers were part of the (Shiite) alliance and that questions the fairness of the process.”

He also predicted parliament would end up in control of a coalition of his group, Allawi and the Kurds.

Still the Shiite alliance is expected to win the largest bloc and would have the first crack at trying to form a government.

“We believe that these elections will lead to forming a balanced government of all parts of the Iraqi people and it will not be controlled by a specific group and this will lead to solving the problems,” he said.

“We will not accept that any part of the Iraqi people not be represented unless they themselves don’t want to take part.”