Shiite bloc bars a deal on seats in Parliament

By Sabrina Tavernise

The New York Times - MONDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2005
BAGHDAD - Sunni Arab political leaders asked the main Shiite political bloc Sunday to give them 10 Shiite seats in the new Parliament in an early attempt to resolve questions over the results of the election last week. The Shiites refused the request.

A small committee headed by two independent Sunnis - Nori Arawi, the departing culture minister, and Zuhair Chalabi, the minister of human rights - met with members of the Shiite group, called the United Iraqi Alliance, and put forth the request of the Sunni parties, said Sami al-Askari, a member of the alliance.
 
The political maneuvering is only preliminary. The Sunnis, who have received enough votes to win approximately 40 seats in the 275-seat Parliament, have publicly denounced the vote as fraudulent, but at the same time are trying to negotiate for more seats. The Shiites estimate that they won enough votes for at least 130 seats, and are trying to decide which group - Sunnis or Kurds - to choose as an ally to form a majority.
 
Sunni Arabs have expressed anger over what they say was widespread fraud in the election, and the move by the Sunni block, the largest group of Sunni parties in Iraq that is known as the Iraqi Consensus Front, was the first effort to prevent a looming deadlock that could delay the formation of a government for months.
 
Protests over the elections have broken out in several Iraqi cities, including one of about a thousand people on Sunday in Baquba, a city north of Baghdad. A police official in Baquba said by telephone that insurgents clashed with the police after the protest, leaving 4 officers dead and 15 wounded.

In all, at least 16 people were killed in violence around Iraq on Sunday.

Also on Sunday, the militant group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia said in a posting on an Internet site that it had killed three Arab women and one Arab man who worked for the American authorities in Iraq. The posting, with photos of four women, said they had worked in the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad.

Protests and bomb attacks

Bombs struck Iraqi police officers and army patrols and destroyed an American tank in Baghdad on Sunday as fresh protests over alleged election fraud fueled tensions that have soured the mood in Iraq since the peaceful voting on Dec. 15.

In the northern city of Mosul, the killing of a Sunni Arab student leader abducted after heading a protest of the election results prompted accusations by mourners at his funeral against militias loyal to the victorious Shiite Islamists and their Kurdish allies in the interim government.

President Jalal Talabani urged Sunni leaders on Sunday to join a new, broader coalition. Otherwise there would be no peace, he warned. Hundreds of Shiites spilled into Baghdad streets on Sunday to support their governing religious coalition. Smaller protests were held by Sunni Arab groups in Falluja and Baquba to support demands for a rerun of the elections.

An Iraqi court has ordered that at least 90 candidates, mostly Sunni Arabs, be disqualified from serving in Parliament because of their ties to Saddam Hussein's Baath Party. The head of the electoral commission, Adel al-Lami, said that the panel would abide by the ruling.

While it was not clear whether more than a handful of the affected candidates would have won or whether the ruling would significantly alter the Parliament's composition, the ruling bars some Sunni Arab leaders who probably would have won. And it is sure to fuel more resentment among Sunni Arabs, who are likely to have a limited role in the new government.

After a lull during the election, deadly attacks have picked up. Among the fatalities on Sunday was a U.S. soldier killed by a bomb in Baghdad. Five Iraqi soldiers were killed by a suicide car bomb.

The U.S. military will not hand over detention facilities or individual detainees to Iraqi officials until the Iraqis have demonstrated higher standards of care, a U.S. official said Sunday. The decision was announced two weeks after the discovery of 120 abused Iraqi prisoners. (Reuters, NYT, AP)