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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (255543)	10/16/2005 4:01:07 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573097

re: But if the 'no' vote reflects the Sunnis' share of the population, then the country is still in trouble.......constitution or no constitution. A piece of paper doesn't automatically resolve the crisis. You understand the details, right? A 2/3 no vote in any 3 areas kills the deal. Easily achieved in many Sunni areas. And it appears the Sunni turnout was larger than the Shite turnout. Apparently the strong Sunni opposition didn't do the trick. But like I said earlier, strong Sunni opposition does not bode well for the future of Iraq. Voters approve Iraqi constitution Iraq's constitution seemed assured of passage, despite strong opposition from Sunni Arabs. In London, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice predicted the charter was likely to pass, although she stressed she did not know the outcome for certain. Initial estimates of overall turnout on Saturday were 61%, election officials said. The constitution's apparent victory was muted, though, by the prospect that the result might divide the country further. US President George Bush congratulated Iraqis on the vote and said the new constitution was as a victory for opponents of terrorism. "The vote in Iraq is in stark contrast to the attitude, the philosophy and strategy of al Qaida, their terrorist friends and killers," Bush said. Rejection appeared highly unlikely after initial vote counts showed that a majority supported the constitution in two of the four provinces that Sunni Arab opponents were relying on to defeat it. Opponents needed to get a two-thirds "no" vote in three of those provinces. They may have reached the threshold in Anbar and Salahuddin, but Diyala and Ninevah provinces appeared to have supported the document by a wide margin. The latter three have Sunni majorities but also powerful Shiite and Kurdish communities, which made them focal points for the political battle. In Diyala, 70% supported the referendum, 20% opposed it, said Adil Abdel-Latif, the head of the election commission in Diyala. The result came from a first count of the approximately 400,000 votes cast. At least one more count was being conducted to confirm the votes, which would then be sent to Baghdad, where results from all provinces are being collected for final confirmation. According to a vote count from 275 of Ninevah's 300 polling stations, about 326,000 people supported the constitution and 90,000 opposed it, said Abdul-Ghani Ali Yehya, spokesman for the election commission in the province's capital, Mosul. Ballots from the remaining 25 stations were still being brought to the central counting centre, he said. A nationwide majority "yes" vote is assured by the widespread support of the Shiites, who make up 60% of Iraq's estimated 27 million people, and the Kurds, who make up another 20%. Abdul-Hussein al-Hendawi, a top official in the elections commission, stressed there were no final results yet from the vote. The constitution is a crucial step in Iraq's transition to democracy after two decades of rule by Saddam Hussein's dictatorship. Washington hopes it passes so Iraqis can form a legitimate, representative government, tame the insurgency and enable the 150,000 US troops to begin withdrawing. news.scotsman.com