Iraqis Await Preliminary Election Results

(March 9) -- Iraq has postponed today's anticipated release of initial results from the weekend's election -- the country's second parliamentary poll since Saddam Hussein's ouster and the first to decide who'll rule Iraq once American troops are gone.

Sunday's election was a key step for Iraq on the path toward peaceful self-governance, and its results will decide who shepherds the country into a new era when U.S. troops pull out next year. Washington plans to pull out half of its nearly 100,000 troops by the end of summer, and leave Iraq completely by the end of 2011. On Monday, the top U.S. general in Iraq said the election went well enough to make that goal possible.

Iraq's electoral commission said it would release preliminary results today, after about a third of ballots were counted. But it now says not enough votes have been tabulated, and results won't come out until Wednesday or Thursday. The numbers are expected to include Baghdad's voting districts, which represent about a fifth of the 325 seats in Iraq's parliament and are key to determining the overall winner.

The question going into the polls was whether Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's governing Shiite coalition could reach across Iraq's sectarian divide and win votes from its myriad factions -- especially Sunni Muslims -- to bridge fissures that have stymied Iraqi unity since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

While ballots are still being counted, al-Maliki's bloc is already claiming victory. But so are followers of the candidate thought to be his biggest challenger, a fellow Shiite and former prime minister, Ayad Allawi.

"We think that the State of Law coalition will shoulder the task of forming the next government," a member of al-Maliki's coalition, Abbas al-Bayati, told The Associated Press. He said early results show the bloc did well in Baghdad and in the Shiite south, which includes Iraq's second-largest city, Basra.

Al-Maliki was expected to win big among religious Shiites. But Allawi's secular alliance, dubbed Iraqiya, has in recent months drawn more crossover support from Sunni Muslims, who see the former prime minister as someone who can represent their interests as well, without being beholden to a neighboring Shiite power, Iran. Iraqiya's Raheem al-Shimmari told the AP that Allawi polled well in traditionally Sunni areas like western Anbar province, as well as religiously and ethnically mixed provinces like Diyala and Ninevah. "We expect that we are first in Iraq," al-Shimmari said.

Even if al-Maliki does retain power, he'll likely have to build a new coalition, possibly with a more powerful role for Allawi -- a process that could take months. Al-Maliki wasn't sworn in for five months after the 2005 election.

Another question was about turnout -- whether Sunni Muslims would vote this time around, after largely staying home from the polls in 2005. The Sunni boycott ultimately strengthened Shiites' grasp on power, and fueled Sunni resentment of the government in which they had little say. That, in turn, led to more violence.

Sunni insurgent groups threatened voters to stay away from the polls this year, as in 2005, with one al-Qaida-linked group, the Islamic State of Iraq, vowing to kill anyone who dared to vote. Attacks on election day killed at least 36 people, but the country was spared large-scale bombings and violence that used to be quite common there.

Officials estimated that 62 percent of Iraq's 19 million eligible voters went to the polls on Sunday -- a proportion greater than in most U.S. elections. Still, turnout was lower than in 2005, when about 76 percent of Iraqi voters went to the polls. Officials attributed the relatively low turnout to a combination of voter intimidation and stricter ID requirements at polling stations.

The last time Iraqis went to the polls was in February 2009, to elect candidates for local offices. But Sunday's voting was only the second parliamentary election since Saddam's fall, and the first under full Iraqi sovereignty. American diplomats and soldiers were still assisting in the country's day-to-day business in 2005.