Iraq Press Roundup

The provincial elections were a defeat for Iran

The move away from Iraqi political parties supported by religious elites was a slap in the face for the Iranians and their agenda in Iraq, al-Iraq lil-Kul said Tuesday.

The Iraqi people are wary of religious and sectarian politics and moved at the polls to eliminate that ideology. When they voted for liberal candidates, they struck a major blow to the heinous plans for Iraq advocated by the Iranian regime.

At the polls, the Iraqi people expressed their dissatisfaction with political leaders allied with the Iranians who were trying to put the people at the mercy of sectarianism.

In Karbala province, for example, independent candidate Yousef al-Haboubi won major concessions in the elections there despite the numerous Shiite holy sites in the provincial capital, also named Karbala.

Apart from voter sentiments, the role of international monitors may have disrupted sectarian agendas at the polls, resulting in a political map conducive to a new democratic Iraq.

New readings of the Iraqi election results

The correct course of action, after the elections, is for all parties in the Iraqi political environment to realize the only losers at the polls were sectarian and ethnic radicals, Kitabat reported Tuesday.

Al-Mehrab Martyr List scored near the bottom in several races in the southern provinces, while the Kurdish Front and the Iraqi Islamic Party lost out in Anbar and Salah ad-Din. Independent candidates, however, managed major concessions in some of the holiest places in the country, pointing to a non-sectarian trend.

Meanwhile, the State of Law coalition backed by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki won big in the southern provinces, suggesting the Iraqi people are satisfied with the course he has taken for the country.

Secular groups, however, were largely absent from the polls, the newspaper said. Iraqis maintain hope, though, that political leaders separated from the religious elites may come forward with a new direction for Iraq in future elections.

The Iraqi provincial elections went by with few reports of violence or corruption, thanks in part to Iraqi national security forces. The successful elections showed that terrorism and bloodshed that plagued the country were in fact foreign to Iraq.

Integrity of elections questioned

Several Shiite parties in the volatile Diyala province are raising allegations regarding the integrity of the provincial elections, Shabab al-Iraq reported Tuesday.

Nine parties, ranging from Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's State of Law slate to Sadrists running under an independent bloc, raised objections to the polling at a provincial center in the capital, Baquba.

The parties read a statement questioning the independence of the Iraqi election body, the Independent High Electoral Commission. They also laid blame on Sunni parties, the victors in Diyala, for pressuring election officials.

The parties also said their monitors reported different numbers than did the Independent High Electoral Commission in the city of Khanaqin in northwest Diyala near the Iranian border.

Claims were also raised that Sunni election monitors were given more access to the polls than any of the other parties running for seats in Diyala.

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(Edited by Daniel Graeber)