Iraq: A broad-based group of Sunni and secular parties called yesterday for a re-run of last week's Iraqi election, claiming that the ruling party in the country had engaged in blatant fraud.
"We want a new election commission and we're going to ask the United Nations to help organise it," Thair al-Naqeeb, the spokesman for Ayad Allawi, the head of the Iraqi national list, said last night.
"We're going to ask for a new government to rule while the election is prepared. If our demands are not met, we will take further steps and create a lot of protest," he added.
Mr Allawi was Washington's favourite to become prime minister in the new four-year parliament. His list includes liberals, communists and representatives of several ethnic minorities, as well as secular Sunnis and Shias. It is considered to be the most balanced of any group in last week's poll and is firmly opposed to religion interfering in politics.
But preliminary results gave it a worse score than it expected, and it will probably end up with barely half the 40 seats it has in the current parliament.
Leaders of two Sunni blocks met Mr Allawi's allies at his headquarters yesterday to work out their strategy. They included the Islamist-led Consensus Front and a secular list run by a Sunni nationalist and former Baathist, Saleh al-Mutlak.
Although they did well in Iraq's western provinces, the Sunnis were disappointed not to have done better in the capital.
They plan to meet again today with a larger group of parties. "We expect to sign a joint statement outlining our demands," Mr Naqeeb said. "I know it's not easy to re-run an election. But if they refuse, we will boycott the new parliament."
Mr Allawi, who served for nine months until last April as prime minister, is not in Iraq at present, but Mr Naqeeb said he was in constant touch with him, and Mr Allawi approved fully of their actions.
Fraud allegations were already being made before the results began to be announced. By Sunday, more than 1,000 witness statements of violations had been delivered to the election commission.
In Baghdad, in particular, parties accused the police of supporting the main Shia list, the United Iraqi Alliance, the largest component in the present government. When preliminary results for Baghdad gave the Shia list - a coalition of several religious parties - 58 per cent of the vote, the opposition claimed this proved their suspicions were justified. Nationally, the Shia list is likely to retain most of the 140 seats it has in the current parliament.
Hussein al-Hindawi, the election commission chief, said that 10.9 million people had voted, putting the national turnout at 70 per cent - higher than the 58 per cent who participated in January, when many in the Sunni Arab minority stayed away.
Turnout in Anbar province, where insurgents are strong in towns such as Ramadi, was 55 per cent, compared with 2 per cent in January. - (Guardian Service)