Thursday, April 08, 2010

Al Sadr and Iraq's Hung Parliament

The Iraqi Parliament when in Session.
It is claimed that 1.4 million people voted in the unofficial referendum in Iraq which was organised by Al Sadr's Bloc to determine who to support as Prime Minister. Yet this would mean an average of 333,333 voters for what were claimed to be 42 polling centres. Furthermore some 32% of those who voted opted for candidates other than those presented to them on the ballot paper. They made use of a write-in facility. The results are given below. INA stands for the Iraqi National Alliance which won 70 seats in the official election, 39 or 40 of whom belong to Al Sadr's Bloc.

24% Ibramhim al-Jaafari (INA) Prime Minister April 2005 to May 2006
23% Jaffar Mohammad al-Sadr (State of Law) Dawa Party Leader
17% Qusay al-Suhail (INA and Al Sadr's Bloc) *
10% Nouri al-Maliki (State of Law) The current Prime Minister
9% Ayad Allawi (Iraqiya) Interim Prime Minister May 2004 to 2005
5% Baha Araji (INA and Al Sadr's Bloc) *
3% Ahmed Chalabi (INA) President Governing Council 2003-4 *
2% Adel Abdulmahdi (INA) A current Vice-President
2% Rafia al-Issawi (Iraqiya) A current Deputy Prime Minister *

* = a write-in. The total for other write-ins with lower individual percentages than the above was 5%.

In the official election, the result was Iraqiya 91, State of Law 89, INA 70, Kurdish Alliance 43 and others (no group with more than 8 seats) a total of 32.

Here is an analysis of the above situation. Also see here and here.

UPDATE 9 APRIL. Here is a fine analysis of the result.

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