1.

FINAL RESULTS OF IRAQ'S LANDMARK POLLS TO BE ANNOUNCED SUNDAY AS VIOLENCE CONTINUES

Agence France-Presse
February 12, 2005

http://www.turkishpress.com/world/news.asp?id=050212204627.3jq5uy26.xml

BAGHDAD -- The final results of Iraq's general elections were due to be announced on Sunday, two weeks after Iraqis took part in their first free elections in half a century but amid relentless violence.

"We will announce the final results tomorrow," electoral commission official Farid Ayar told AFP on Saturday.

"These will be the uncertified results. We will wait for three days for possible claims by political entities. If there are none, then the results will be certified," he added.

Based on partial results previously released by the electoral commission, the final figures should confirm that the 275-member National Assembly will be dominated by the long-oppressed Shiites and Kurds.

The main Shiite coalition list which was blessed by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani could muster half the seats in parliament, while the ticket grouping the two main Kurdish parties was also poised to make a strong showing.

The Iraqi List of current Prime Minister Iyad Allawi looked set to settle for a distant third place, which observers predicted would force him to relinquish his post.

Despite threats of a bloodbath by extremist Sunni Arab insurgents, election day passed without any major attacks and was internationally hailed as a success. But violence has resumed since.

On a surprise visit to Iraq on Friday, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld described the voting as "a stunning accomplishment . . . putting this country on the path towards freedom and democracy."

But partial results indicate turnout was low in Sunni areas and negotiations have already begun for the minority community of the ruling elite under Saddam Hussein to be included in the political process.

Officials and observers fear that Sunni marginalization could further fuel an insurgency which has resulted in thousands of deaths and crippled the country's economy since the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

In the latest attack to rock the troubled country, a car bomb went off near a hospital in the town of Musayyib on Saturday, killing 17 people and wounding 16.

On Friday, 14 people were killed in a suicide bombing near a Shiite mosque in the town of Balad Ruz, northeast of Baghdad, while another seven were killed in an attack on Shiite-owned bakeries in the capital.

The Balad Ruz attack was claimed by the network of Al-Qaeda Iraq frontman, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, in a statement which called for the imposition of Islamic law.

Ahead of the January 30 general elections, Zarqawi, the most wanted man in Iraq, had pledged to wage holy war against the Shiite majority, whose expected political empowerment has fuelled the anger of Sunni Arab hardliners.

Violence elsewhere claimed the lives of at least three other victims on Saturday, including a judge who used to be an investigating magistrate under Saddam Hussein's regime and was shot dead in the southern city of Basra.

A soldier was killed in a mortar attack near the insurgent stronghold of Dhuluiya, north of Baghdad, and a civilian died in a roadside bomb attack targeting a joint Iraqi-U.S. patrol outside Samarra.

A car bomb also went off in eastern Baghdad, wounding one U.S. soldier and five Iraqi civilians, a military spokesman said.

U.S. and Iraqi fought insurgents in the main northern city of Mosul on Saturday, killing four of them, a statement said.

The bodies of 14 Iraqis were found on Saturday in and around Mosul, some of them blindfolded and with their hands tied behind their backs.

In the Shiite southern city of Nasiriyah, a fight broke out between Iraqi police and commandos, wounding five on each side.

The U.S. military announced that two American soldiers died in non-combat incidents, bringing to 1,451 the number of U.S. servicemen who have died in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion.

Meanwhile, the chief news executive of satellite channel CNN resigned after he allegedly suggested that U.S. forces in Iraq had deliberately targeted journalists.

Eason Jordan's alleged comments, which he denies making, were in response to a comment by a U.S. lawmaker that 63 journalists killed in Iraq were "collateral damage."

2.

IRAQ ELECTION RESULTS AVAILABLE TOMORROW

Associated Press
February 12, 2005

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/breaking_news/10885883.htm

BAGHDAD -- Iraqi officials will announce the final results of the Jan. 30 national elections on Sunday, a spokesman for the election commission said.

Farid Ayar said on Al-Arabiya television Saturday that the commission would meet Sunday morning to finalize some unspecified issues and then announce the final figures in the afternoon. The results will be considered official after three days.

"We will give three days to verify the results, hear any disputes, and then they will be officially declared final," Ayar said. "All the numbers will be announced tomorrow."

Voters last month chose a 275-member National Assembly and ruling councils in the country's 18 provinces. Iraqis living in Kurdish-ruled areas of northern Iraq also elected a new regional parliament.

Partial returns released early this week showed a Shiite Muslim-dominated ticket endorsed by the Shiite clergy running first among the 111 candidate lists. A Kurdish coalition was running second.

The ticket headed by pro-U.S. interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi was running a distant third.

The new assembly will elect a president and two vice presidents, who then will choose a prime minister, who will form a government subject to the legislature's approval.

Many Sunni Arabs are believed to have boycotted the election, either out of fear of insurgent attacks or opposition to a vote with thousands of U.S. and foreign soldiers on Iraqi soil.