Iraq Election cont'd

Fire of Liberty

Its funny watching the various politicians and talking heads hem and haw about the Sunni participation in the election and future government of Iraq. While it is true that several provences in Iraq didn't participate in the election, there still were several Sunnis who either ran on Sunni party list (Adnan Pachachi-Independent Democratic Gathering- 10 seats), ran on a Shi'a list under the banner United Iraqi Alliance (some 30 seats), which was endorsed by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Sunni's are also expected to gain some 17 seats under the Sunni banner The Iraqi Islamic Party. Sunnis also participated in Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's (Shi'a) Iraqi Ticket political party as well as with many of the Kurdish lists. The current defense minister and president are also in the race.

Overall, the Sunnis will have some 60 seats in the 275 member National Assembly. This would roughly represent some 22% of the assembly, which would be about equal to their proportion of Iraq's population.

Professor Phares has a run-down of the various parties that are in Iraq, here. Check it out.