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Iraq Election Results Available Sunday
Saturday, February 12, 2005
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BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraqi officials will announce the final results of the Jan. 30 national elections on Sunday, a spokesman for the election commission said.
Farid Ayar (search) said on Al-Arabiya television Saturday that the commission would meet Sunday morning to finalize some unspecified issues and then announce the final figures in the afternoon. The results will be considered official after three days.
"We will give three days to verify the results, hear any disputes, and then they will be officially declared final," Ayar said. "All the numbers will be announced tomorrow."
Voters last month chose a 275-member National Assembly (search) and ruling councils in the country's 18 provinces. Iraqis living in Kurdish-ruled areas of northern Iraq also elected a new regional parliament.
Partial returns released early this week showed a Shiite Muslim-dominated ticket endorsed by the Shiite clergy running first among the 111 candidate lists. A Kurdish coalition was running second.
The ticket headed by pro-U.S. interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi (search) was running a distant third.
The new assembly will elect a president and two vice presidents, who then will choose a prime minister, who will form a government subject to the legislature's approval.
Many Sunni Arabs are believed to have boycotted the election, either out of fear of insurgent attacks or opposition to a vote with thousands of U.S. and foreign soldiers on Iraqi soil.
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