Legislative elections in Iraq

Elections for the Iraqi National Assembly 275 seats were conducted Dec. 15, 2005 with seats accorded proportionally in each of the 18 governorates making Iraq. Approximately 11 million votes were cast with turnout beetwin 55% and 88% depending on the governorate. Approximately 1000 complaints have been registered with the Election Commission.

The Shi'ite coalition was reported to have won the largest share of the vote with votes largely along ethnic/sectarian lines. The Sunni partition was said to be important as shown by the relatively high participation in all governorate.

Final voting results are expected by the beginning of January.

Gérard Chaliand comments in Le Figaro, 2005/12/21, "Quel que soit le jugement que l'on porte sur cette guerre – une guerre de choix aux justifications manipulées –, deux groupes hier opprimés et réprimés représentant 80% de la population participent désormais au pouvoir. Si la démocratie est l'expression des aspirations de la majorité, cette transformation constitue un succès. Reste, afin de ne pas déboucher sur un chaos, à tenter de réinsérer dans le processus politique une majorité de sunnites maladroitement écartés naguère et dont Washington a cruellement besoin aujourd'hui."