Islamic parties performed well in Iraq's provincial races

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Islamic parties will be heavily represented on provincial councils across Iraq, according to final results released Friday from council races in 12 provinces that documented enthusiastic voter participation in the north and south and lower turnout in Baghdad and Sunni Muslim-populated areas.

"This is a message to all political parties to respect the Islamic identity of the people," said Jalaleddin Saghir, a preacher at a prominent mosque in Baghdad and a candidate on a Shiite-backed political list.

The partial results from the Jan. 30 elections — which did not include figures for the 275-seat National Assembly — were released on another day of deadly attacks by insurgents. Eleven Iraqis were killed in a massacre at a bakery shop near Baghdad, and at least 12 worshipers were killed when a car bomb exploded outside a mosque in a nearby town.

Elections officials, facing growing complaints, said results of the National Assembly vote would be available in "a few days maximum."

"The counting is in the very final stages," said Abdul-Hussein Hendawi, head of the election commission.

But the provincial council returns provided the first solid indication of voter turnout in Iraq's first free election since the 1950s. In two Kurdish-populated areas in northern Iraq, turnout reached 80 and 89 percent; it reached 73 percent around the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala in the predominantly Shiite south. Turnout was significantly lower — 48 percent — in Baghdad, and dropped to 34 percent in Diyala province, east of Baghdad.

Elections officials cautioned that turnout totals for the national election could differ from the provincial elections. At most polls, voters were given two ballots — one national, one local — and officials said some may have turned in only one.

Islamic parties dominated the results in the southern provinces, where Shiite religious leaders have assumed growing importance since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Faring best were the mainstream Shiite religious parties that returned from exile after the U.S. invasion. They drew on infrastructure honed during years abroad and the perceived support of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's most influential religious leader.

A surprisingly strong showing was also posted by a faction loyal to the father of Moqtada al-Sadr, a young Shiite cleric whose militia fought U.S. forces twice last year. Al-Sadr's father, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, was assassinated in 1999.

But while Islamic parties fared well as a group, their votes were scattered among various factions, and only one — a party of independents in Wasit province said to be backed by Moqtada al-Sadr — won an absolute majority. Seats will be allocated on each local council in proportion to each party's votes.

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