Region | Iraq
Al Dulaimi puts priority on ending militancy
Sunni Arab participation in the elections could have been even higher if there had been more polling centres in key Sunni areas, a head of the largest Sunni Arab slate said yesterday
- AP
- Published: 23:31 May 3, 2009
Baghdad: Sunni Arab participation in the elections could have been even higher if there had been more polling centres in key Sunni areas, a head of the largest Sunni Arab slate said yesterday.
Adnan Al Dulaimi, of the Iraqi Accordance Front, said his group's first task when they enter the parliament will be to work on calming the security situation.
He predicted that the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance will not retain the slim majority they hold in the outgoing parliament because his Sunni group, the Kurdish Alliance and former Prime Minister Eyad Allawi's ticket will gain strength.
Heart happy
"It makes the heart happy that all Iraqis went out and participated in the elections in large numbers, even in the areas that are referred to as hot. The situation was quiet, there were not any confrontations or riots," Al Dulaimi said in the telephone interview.
Sunni Arabs went out in large numbers to vote on Thursday.
Many of them boycotted the landmark January 30 general elections to protest the US-led presence.
This left them with only 17 of the 275 seats in parliament and putting the Shiites and Kurds in control. Al Dulaimi said he does not have a percentage of Sunni turnout but added that if there had been more voting centres in Sunni areas, "the participation would have had been very high".
"Still we believe there was high participation in the so-called hot areas like the provinces of Anbar, Diyala and Salahuddin," he said.
Al Jaafari hints at role for Al Sadr supporters
If Iraqi Prime Minister Ebrahim Al Jaafari's United Iraqi Alliance wins the country's election there will be a role for supporters of radical cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, he indicated on Thursday in an interview with BBC television.
Al Sadr's supporters who serve in Iraq's current parliament and government "fulfill their role well from a political point of view", Al Jaafari told BBC's Newsnight programme when asked if Sadr backers might join a new government.
"I believe they are a plus," Al Jaafari said. "When all the politicians take up their pen to write or share in the government, there is nothing that risks them substituting the pen for the gun."
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