shiite-muslim

By Caroline Alexander and Daniel Williams March 8 (Bloomberg) — Iraqis defied bombs and mortars to get to the polls in yesterday’s national election. Now they will likely have to face months of haggling by fractious leaders over the formation of a coalition government. Vote-counting was under way last night and initial results of the election, which was contested by 86 political groupings, are expected today. At least 36 people were killed in attacks, most in Baghdad, according to the Associated Press. Iraqi affiliates of al-Qaeda, the global terror network, had vowed to attack voters on their way to the polls, which closed at 5 p.m. While the strikes failed to derail the elections, violence could grow if the vote doesn’t produce a coalition that includes Iraq’s main ethnic and religious groups, the majority Shiite Muslim and minority Sunni Muslim and Kurds. This would threaten U.S. ambitions to leave a stable Iraq as it withdraws its troops. The level of violence is “episodic, lethal, but ultimately incapable of derailing the political process,” said Reidar Visser , an Iraq analyst at the Olso-based Norwegian Institute for International Affairs. “The more fundamental question relates to the quality of the political process” and Iraq’s transformation to democracy which “remains highly tentative.” In Baghdad, voters had to endure grenade, mortar and bomb attacks. At least 19 people were killed when explosions struck two buildings in the northeastern part of the capital, the Associated Press reported. The cities of Fallujah, Baquba and Samarra were also struck by mortars or bombs, many of them near polling stations, Agence France-Presse reported. Undeterred “Despite the bombs that I heard on my way and the fact that I was stopped and searched three times, I insisted on voting,” Ali Salim, a 32-year-old public school teacher in Baghdad and a Shiite Muslim, said at a voting station. “I even put on my best suit and tie.” President Barack Obama called the election “an important milestone” and congratulated the Iraqis yesterday for not succumbing to intimidation. “I have great respect for the millions of Iraqis who refused to be deterred by acts of violence, and who exercised their right to vote,” he said in a statement issued by the White House. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno , had reported that “the Iraq Security Forces have performed superbly, and the turnout is as high if not higher than earlier expectations. So all in all a good day for the Iraqis and for all of us,” Gates told reporters traveling on his military plane. Oil Revenue Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki predicted last week that no one party would win a majority. A Shiite Muslim alliance that brought him to power in 2005 has disintegrated and his State of Law coalition was in a contest for Shiite votes with former Shiite allies now in the National Iraqi Alliance. Iraq’s Kurds, who enjoy semi-autonomy in the north and backed al-Maliki after the last election, have since feuded with him over sharing oil revenue and control of Kirkuk, an oil-rich northern city. The main Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, formed an alliance that was challenged by a new party called Change. Sunni Muslims, who boycotted the 2005 election, were wooed by an array of Islamic parties, while former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is leading the Iraqiya party, which advocates non- sectarian politics. “The fun and games will start after the votes are counted, and the parties have to form a coalition,” Qubad Talabani, the representative of Iraq’s Kurdish autonomous zone in Washington, said in a telephone interview before the election. “It will take time.” U.S. Anxiety The vote was the second since Saddam Hussein ’s overthrow by U.S. forces in 2003. More than 6,200 candidates were competing for seats in the 325-member legislature. In the coming days, the focus will be on the vote count. “The great number of Iraqis who risked their safety to take part in these elections are watching,” Allawi said after the polls closed. Results may not be formally certified until the end of March. It could then take up to six months, or longer, before a government emerges, according to a March 3 report by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy . “The inevitable delays before the next Iraqi government forms will cause understandable anxiety within the Obama Administration as it contemplates the appropriate speed for U.S. withdrawal,” the report said. The election comes at a time when the U.S. is pulling its troops out of Iraq and has handed most security duties to Iraqi forces. Under a schedule set last year by Obama, U.S. troop strength will shrink from 96,000 to 50,000 by September 1. All American forces will have left by the end of 2011. Over the past few months, violence has been periodic in Iraq, with deadly, sometimes multiple attacks separated by days of relative calm. American officials insist the pull-out will go ahead and Iraqi officials say they are taking over. The withdrawal is “strongly on track,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters in Washington on March 4. To contact the reporters on this story: Daniel Williams in Cairo at dwilliams41@bloomberg.net . Caroline Alexander in London at calexander1@bloomberg.net