Wednesday, February 02, 2005, 12:57 A.M. Pacific
Many Iraqi voters turned away
By SALLY BUZBEE
The Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq's interim president said yesterday that tens of thousands of people may have been unable to vote in the country's historic weekend election because some polling places — including those in Sunni Arab areas — ran out of ballots.
As clerks pounded vote-count tallies into computers to compile final results, President Ghazi al-Yawer also said chaos and a power vacuum in Iraq mean U.S. forces need to stay for now, even though a new government will be formed after the results are known.
Scattered clashes were reported in rebel areas across the country, but authorities still eased security restrictions by reopening borders and allowing commercial flights to take off from Baghdad Airport for the first time since the weekend's landmark election.
The allegation that many voters were turned away could further alienate minority Sunnis, who already are complaining they have been left out of the political process.
"Tens of thousands were unable to cast their votes because of the lack of ballots in Basra, Baghdad and Najaf," said al-Yawer, himself a Sunni Arab. Najaf is a mostly Shiite city, but Basra and Baghdad have substantial Sunni populations.
Elections officials acknowledged that irregularities kept people away — including in the volatile northern and heavily Sunni city of Mosul. Security worries in Sunni areas were partly to blame as some polls did not open and ballots were too few, they said.
As al-Yawer spoke in the heavily fortified Green Zone, armed Western security guards and monitors watched nearby as election workers began a final count of the country's vote.
On Monday afternoon, workers at polling centers nationwide finished an initial hand count of ballots from more than 5,200 precincts. Tally sheets and ballots were then trucked to Baghdad under U.S. military escort.
Yesterday, about 200 clerks began logging data from the tally sheets into laptop computers for the final count. Election officials have not said when the compilation will be completed and final results made public.
The issue of Sunni participation is key because of fears that further political alienation could fuel the Sunni-led insurgency.
One Sunni leader — Raad al-Hamadani, the secretary-general of the Council of Iraqi tribes — went to the Arab League in Cairo yesterday, complaining the election was illegitimate because it was imposed under military occupation. Some Sunnis called for a boycott because of the presence of U.S. troops.
Though it could take up to 10 days for official results to be known, the main Shiite Muslim Alliance stands to claim the biggest share of seats in the National Assembly, according to party pollwatchers.
But the Alliance probably won't win enough to push through a political agenda or claim the prime minister's job without support from other parties — notably the Kurds.
Shiites comprise some 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million population but were repressed under the rule of ousted leader Saddam Hussein, a Sunni.
The ticket headed by interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite backed by the United States, is running second in central and southern Iraq, according to politicians from several factions.
Sunday's election, which occurred without catastrophic rebel attacks, raised hopes that a new Iraqi government would be able to assume greater responsibility for security, hastening the day when the 170,000 U.S. and other foreign troops can go home.
The first visible reduction could come as soon as March, when thousands of U.S. troops whose tours were extended prior to the election are due to go home. If commanders allow the full rotation out and others are not brought in, it would shrink the overall force to 138,000.
But the timing of cutbacks beyond that is highly uncertain. Administration officials are determined to avoid setting a specific timetable.
"It's not a month or a year. It's condition-based," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday in a CNN interview.
January was the third month since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in which U.S. troop deaths reached or exceeded 100. According to the Pentagon's latest count, at least 100 died in January, while an Associated Press tally put the figure at 102. The only months deadlier for U.S. troops were November, when 138 died, and April, with 135. More than 1,400 troops have died since the war began in March 2003.
Mishaan Jibouri, a candidate and national assembly member, said election officials deliberately supplied insufficient materials in some Sunni areas, believing few would vote.
Arab voters who initially intended to boycott the polls in the ethnically-mixed city of Kirkuk had apparently changed their minds after realizing they would lose to Kurds. But by the time they arrived to vote, ballot sheets were gone, he said.
"I think the decision came from Baghdad. They were concerned with keeping Sunnis out of the game," he said.
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