Results and turnout
Provisional results released on February 13 show that the United Iraqi Alliance, generally believed to be backed by Shi'a leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, leads with some 48% of the vote. The Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan is in second place with some 26% of the vote. Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's party, the Iraqi List, is coming a distant third with some 14%.In total some 8.4 million votes were cast, a 58% turnout. On 11 February the IECI released turnout figures for the elections to the Governorate Councils in 12 of Iraq's Governorates - it is likely that these figures will be almost identical to the turnout for the National Assembly elections. They show turnout ranging from 89 percent in Dohuk, in the Kurdish north, to 34 percent in Diyala, in the Sunni areas north-east of Baghdad. In the Shi'a heartland governorates of Karbala and Najaf, turnout was reported to be 73 percent, while in Baghdad, which has a mixed population, it was 48 percent. In Al Anbar, the governorate with the largest area in Iraq, only 3775 valid votes were cast in the Governorate Council Election and 13,753 in the national election.
The vast majority of the 111 lists that competed in the election did not win seats. The most prominent party to be excluded was the moderate Sunni Independent Democrats Movement led by former exile Adnan Pachachi. It only recieved some 12,000 votes. Other prominent parties that failed to win seats include the monarchist Constitutional Monarchy Movement, and the martial Movement of Free Military Officers and Civilians. Organized Sunni Arab groups (including the Iraqi Islamic Party, the Association of Muslim Scholars, and the banned Ba‘ath Arab Socialist Party) boycotted the elections.
In total eleven parties received enough votes to win a seat in the assembly:
Party Votes Leaders
Total count Percent
United Iraqi Alliance 4,075,292 48.19% Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Hussain al-Shahristani
Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan 2,175,551 25.73% Jalal Talabani, Masoud Barzani
Iraqi List 1,168,943 13.8% Iyad Allawi
The Iraqis 150,680 1.78% Ghazi al-Yawer
Iraqi Turkmen Front 93,480 1.11%
National Independent Cadres and Elites 69,938 0.83%
People's Union 69,920 0.83%
Islamic Group of Kurdistan 60,592 0.72%
Islamic Action Organization In Iraq 43,205 0.51%
National Democratic Alliance 36,795 0.44%
National Rafidain List 36,255 0.43%
Other 475,615 5.62%
Total valid votes 8,456,266 100.00%
Invalid votes 94,305 —
Total votes cast 8,550,871 — |
