Baghdad: Iraq's Shiite Islamists were confirmed in power by election results on Friday that gave them a near-majority and opened the way for US-backed negotiations with Kurds and Sunni Arabs on a national unity government.
According to uncertified results released on Friday, Shiite parties surged to victory in Iraq's general election but will have to find coalition partners to form a government after failing to secure an overall majority.
The conservative Shiite United Iraqi Alliance won 128 of parliament's 275 seats, the electoral commission said, almost five weeks after Iraqis went to the polls on December 15.
Their allies in the current government, the Kurdish Alliance, won 53 seats, leaving the Shiites and Kurds just three seats shy of the two-thirds majority needed to elect a president and push through constitutional reforms.
They are expected to call on at least one of the Sunni parties, who more than tripled their representation in parliament, to join them in setting up a government of national unity.
Members of the Shiite alliance, however, expressed dissatisfaction at the distribution of the seats, saying their coalition should have been awarded at least eight seats more.
"We will present our objections on the distribution of the seats by the commission which was not done according to the election law," said Jawad Al Maliki, the deputy leader of Prime Minister Ebrahim Al Jaafari's Dawa party. The Sunni-based National Concord Front, meanwhile, took 44 seats and another Sunni party, the National Dialogue Front, won 11 seats.
Troops and police blocked off roads between Baghdad and the restive provinces of Anbar, Salahaddin and Diyala and were also hunting kidnappers who threatened to kill an American journalist by a Friday deadline; leading Sunni Arab figures joined Jill Carroll's family and colleagues in calling for her release.
Despite angry reactions to the rejection of their complaints about the December 15 vote, many Sunni political leaders, who boycotted last year's interim assembly but now have a fifth of the 275 seats in the new parliament, are already discussing places in a grand coalition with the Shiites, Kurds and others.
"Now that the results are out we're going to start serious talks in Baghdad to form a national unity government based on these results," Alliance official Abbas Al Bayati told reporters, adding that meetings could begin as soon as Saturday.
Sunni politician Hussain Al Falluji, accusing US officials of pressuring international monitors to cover up massive fraud, said negotiations would be tough but would go ahead.
Hardliner Saleh Al Mutlak, who shares rebel aims, said: "If we can agree with our brothers on a national patriotic project to ensure the unity of Iraq, we will be part of the government."
The US ambassador, who coaxed and cajoled rival factions into a constitutional deal last year, called on Iraq's sectarian and ethnic communities to come together now to form a government that includes all the main groups. Washington hopes consensus can staunch the bloodshed and let it bring its US troops home.
"Iraq's political parties and their leaders must come together to reinforce their commitment to democratic principles and national unity," said President George W. Bush's envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, echoing the UN representative in Baghdad.
