Iraqi Election Results: Reactions From Around Iraq

As Rod Nordland and Timothy Williams write in The New York Times, the secular coalition led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi won the most seats in Iraq’s parliamentary elections, narrowly edging out the incumbent Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, who angrily denounced the results as fraudulent.

Mr. Allawi won 91 seats in Iraq’s 325-seat Parliament, to Mr. Maliki’s 89 seats, according to results released Friday by Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission. (Read the full story here.) Also see the updated graphic, right, for a table breaking down the results by party and coalition.

Below, we present some reactions from Iraqis around the country.

SAMARRA
NYT
Samarra is a Sunni Arab-dominated northern city where in February 2006 Sunni insurgents destroyed one of the holiest Shiite shrines in Iraq, escalating sectarian tensions into all-out bloodshed. Today it witnessed people celebrating in the streets and shooting in the air.

Imad Abaas, 43
Teacher


“I am proud of these results, and of Allawi’s victory.”

Ahmed Jabar, 29
College student

“Thank God for the credibility of these elections, and I’m proud of this result. I hope there will not be fraud when they are hearing appeals.”

Laith Majid , 23
Unemployed

“I’m very happy with this result, and thank God for everything. I hope this result will stay the same after the appeals.”

MOSUL
NYT
The northern city of Mosul was Saddam Hussein’s northern bastion, from which he launched campaigns against the Kurds. A city dominated by Sunni Arabs and Kurds – with deep and lingering tensions between the two – it was a stronghold of Sunni insurgency groups and remained violent long after Baghdad and other cities in central Iraq became calmer.

Nabel al-Taei, 35
Professor at Mosul University

“It does not matter who is going to win and who gets more seats. What is important is that whoever forms the coming government has to be a nationalist who cares above all about carrying out the will of Iraqis.”

Amal al-Jalili, 36
Teacher

“This election is the justice which was absent from Iraq for 36 years. It is the right of the people, and it is what brought us real, nationalist, people who defended the country and took it away from sectarianism, and those who pursue sectarianism. The best outcome is to change Prime Minister Maliki.”

Medhat Shareef al-Lehabi, 38
Trader

“The results are important, for this election is the fruit of the will of the people, and their ambitions. But the important thing is that everybody should think about the interests of the country and the people, and not about their personal interests. They should be working for Iraq first, before anything. I say Iraq and not the homeland because many have homelands other than Iraq, and they want to build a country to break away from Iraq.”

Khalid Uthman, 33
Public servant

“The important thing in the elections is that we get rid of the occupation that destroyed our country. The elections were honest and the winner was Iraq. More important than political blocs and personalities, there should be an honest nationalist government, and not a government of greedy thieves.”

Tariq Younis, 36
University employee

“I see the result of the elections as the last nail in the coffin of terrorism, which spread destruction in the land throughout the past years of the occupation. I call on our new parliamentarians to speed up the formation of a national government and to start the actual building of the country, and to put services and construction in the forefront.”

NAJAF
NYT

The holiest Shiite city in Iraq, Najaf is the headquarters of the Shiite religious authorities, or Marjaiya. In 2004, it was the scene of intense battles between Moktada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army and American troops and Iraqi government forces, the latter then controlled by Mr. Allawi when he was serving as the American-appointed interim prime minister.

Ahmed Abdul Hussain, 34
Trader
“We expected these results after what we saw from the partial results, especially between Allawi and Maliki, but we did not expect it before the elections because we thought that Maliki would win. I think there has been some kind of fraud for Allawi’s benefit, and this fraud is through foreign interference.” He expected that Mr. Maliki’s State of Law coalition would form a post-election partnership with Mr. Sadr and the rest of the Iraqi National Alliance and the Kurds “because they are partners from the past elections and they cannot let go of that partnership because they will lose everything they have done these past years. I am surprised at the delay in the announcement of the new coalition, because they are opening the way for Baathists to come back to the power.”

Muhammed Ali, 38
Civil servant
“These results have caused me to be disappointed in the electoral commission. We were expecting that they would be honest and because of their experience there would be fewer mistakes. They are making big problems for Iraq if they do not correct the mistakes. What did Allawi give Iraqis when he was prime minister to achieve these results, and why he did not get the same results at the provincial council elections last year? Why did all the blocs get the same results as the provincial council elections, and only Allawi was different?”

Muhaned Abas, 43
Engineer

“We waited for the results today as we waited for the soccer game between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Yes, I expected Allawi to get good results, but not to be the winner. I think that the coming days will show whether there is some kind of fraud or not. I hope that that there will be coalition between all the winning parties so that everyone will join in building the new Iraq, and that they will work for the good of Iraq not for their own benefit, so that the new government will be from all to all.”
NYT