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Iraq

Complaints of fraud rise as Shiites take strong lead

BAGHDAD - Sunni Arabs and a key secular party charged Tuesday that parliamentary elections were tainted by fraud and demanded an inquiry into preliminary results showing the governing Shiite religious bloc with a larger than expected lead.

The complaints focused mainly on Baghdad, Iraq's largest electoral district and one that has large numbers of Sunnis and Shiites. With 89 percent of ballot boxes counted, the Shiite bloc United Iraqi Alliance were leading with about 59 percent of the vote, while the Sunni Arab Iraqi Accordance Front trailed with 19 percent.

Overall election results with nearly 90 percent of the votes counted showed that Shiite Muslims, who make up about 60 percent of the population, won about 110 seats in the 275-member National Assembly through their United Iraqi Alliance slate. Sunnis had 33, and the Kurds had 40. Most of the remaining seats went to smaller parties.

Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the Iraqi Accordance Front, listed several complaints, including voting centers failing to open, shortages in election materials and reports of multiple voting. "There are many violations and there is forgery," al-Dulaimi told the Associated Press, saying his group would demand a new vote in Baghdad if the problems are not addressed.

Electoral commission official Farid Ayar said he has received more than 1,000 formal complaints, 20 of which were serious, or "red." He said he did not expect the complaints would change the overall result, which is to be announced in January.

A secular coalition charged that the election commission was a tool of the religious Shiite-dominated government. "The elections commission is not independent. It is influenced by political parties and by the government," said Ibrahim al-Janabi, an official with Iraqi National List, which is headed by former prime minister Ayad Allawi.

WEAPONS CACHE FOUND: U.S. soldiers in the northern Iraqi desert dug up more than 1,000 aging rockets and missiles wrapped in plastic, some of which were buried as recently as two weeks ago, Army officials said Tuesday. Commanders in the 101st Airborne Division said an Iraqi tipped them off to the buried weapons, perhaps an indication that residents in the largely Sunni Arab region about 150 miles north of Baghdad are beginning to warm up to coalition forces.

HUSSEIN TRIAL TO RESUME: Saddam Hussein's trial reconvenes today, and he was expected to attend even though he boycotted the last session, the chief prosecutor and defense lawyers said. It will be the deposed president's first court appearance since Iraqis went to the polls Dec. 15 to elect a new parliament.

UKRAINE PULLING OUT REMAINING TROOPS: Ukraine began pulling its remaining 876 troops out of Iraq on Tuesday, the defense ministry said, making it the latest nation to wind down its presence in the U.S.-led coalition.

Information from Knight Ridder was used in this report.

[Last modified December 21, 2005, 00:52:16]