Posted on 03/26/2010 11:50:40 AM PDT by AlanD
BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraqi PM says he will not accept election results showing secular challenger with win.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
This headline in part explains how the Republicans lost the House, Senate, and Presidency in the last couple of years.
BAGHDAD — A secular coalition led by Iyad Allawi, a former Iraqi prime minister, won the most votes in Iraq’s parliamentary elections, narrowly edging out Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, according to results released Friday.
Mr. Allawi won 91 seats in Iraq’s 325-seat Parliament to Mr. Maliki’s 89 seats, according to results from Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission.
The long-awaited results from the nationwide March 7 elections, which drew some 12 million voters despite deadly bombings, had dribbled out in recent weeks amid allegations of fraud and calls for a recount by some high-ranking government officials.
Jawad al-Bolani, Iraq’s interior minister and himself a candidate, had called for a delay in announcing the vote totals, saying that tensions between competing political groups could spill over into street violence.
Before the vote was even announced, several hundred supporters of Mr. Maliki and his State of Law coalition gathered with a heavy military presence in central Baghdad to demand a recount.
NUTS!!
Let’s see how it shakes out. The purpose of having them was to get the $100s of billions of dollars of American foreign aid and troops.
The hell with them. Get our boys out nuke the whole region and be done with the jack-holes.
Maliki sounds like Gore. Allawi should be the next PM.
Our big mistake was enshrining Islam in their constitution. The people, obviously, don't want it - but apparently, that's just too bad for them.
Exactly! We should have written the Constitution for them like we did in Japan (Clause 9 - No War Clause). No Islam for you. Political Correctness does not allow us to win wars anymore. I say, to the victor go the spoils. Deal with it Iraq!
There’s a little more than that too.
The Iraqi people have shown a movement away from the sectarian parties and towards secular ones, as evidenced by Allawi’s showing.
A secular Shia with Sunni support.
Sounds like a vindication of Bush and his strategery, the tactics and sacrifice of the US Army as formulated by Petraeus and Odierno and carried out by the troops.
But, remember, Allawi worked for the CIA while a Baathist, was chased to London and almost assassinated by Saddam.
Sounds like a man we should support, after all, a friend.
But Kerry called him a “thug” back when, and I wonder if Maliki is counting on the Democrats antipathy to Allawi, virtually on the basis that he was a friend to America in the 80’s.
Maliki may be angling for Sadr’s support.
And no wonder Maliki endorsed a recount after first not wanting one......
Nice to see the Iraqis already reaching a point that it took America 220 years to reach.
Very possible.
I assume you mean being forced to elect a Muslim activist?
In Rick Thomas’ book “Gambit”, he comments on Maliki, while visiting Washington, met with the Congressional leaders - Pelosi, Reid, et al.
After the meeting, in an aside to an aide or a US liasion, Maliki commented on how much sympathy he had for President Bush, now that he understood what Bush had to deal with.
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