Baghdad, Iraq – Iraq’s war-battered voters apparently approved a new constitution, preliminary and unofficial results showed Sunday.
But the electoral approval comes despite angry Sunni Arabs who proved surprisingly formidable in their first run at post-Saddam Hussein politics: They mustered a strong vote against the U.S.-backed charter.
Province-by-province tallies Sunday showed the constitution winning approval in Saturday’s voting with the backing of Iraq’s Shiite Muslim and Kurdish communities, who together are about 80 percent of the country’s population.
Sunni Arabs, who account for about 20 percent of Iraq’s people, failed to secure the necessary two-thirds “no” vote in any three of Iraq’s 18 provinces, according to counts that local officials provided. In the crucial central provinces with mixed ethnic and religious populations, enough Shiites and Kurds voted to stymie the Sunni bid to reject the constitution.
Authorities gave differing numbers for total turnout but agreed it topped 60 percent.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani issued a decree setting Dec. 15 for Iraqis to vote again, this time to elect a new parliament. If the constitution has indeed passed, the first full-term parliament since Hussein’s fall in 2003 will install a new government by Dec. 31.
Political violence Sunday remained below the level of recent months. The U.S. military, however, announced five U.S. Marines were killed by a roadside bomb in the western insurgent stronghold of Ramadi on Saturday, when Iraqi insurgent groups had largely halted attacks so Sunnis could cast ballots.
Hospital officials in Ramadi said 25 people were killed when U.S. warplanes retaliated for another roadside bombing Sunday. The planes attacked as bystanders gathered around a U.S. Humvee as it smoldered on the side of the road, said Khalid Alwani, a Ramadi hospital official.
As early tallies from the constitutional referendum emerged Sunday, some Sunni leaders objected, saying their field surveys showed they had in fact crossed the threshold for defeating the proposal. They charged that the U.S.-backed government, a coalition of Shiite and Kurdish parties, was stealing the election.
“I believe they will rig the results and announce the success of the referendum, but our monitors reported to us that more than 80 percent of the voters in three governorates have said no to this draft,” said Saleh al-Mutlaq, a spokesman for the Sunnis’ National Dialogue Council; Iraq’s provinces are formally called governorates. “This constitution is a menace to the unity and stability of Iraq, and we shall have no legal or legitimate means in order to defeat it.”
Adil Lami of Iraq’s electoral commission said the commission had received no formal complaints of fraud, adding that “launching accusations in advance” was a tactic typically used by people who felt results were not going their way.
U.S. officials and their allies, including Iraqi government officials, had hoped the larger-than-expected Sunni turnout heralded the Sunnis’ return to mainstream politics in Iraq and disavowal of the insurgency.
Sunni Arabs, who ruled here for decades and wielded extraordinary authority under Hussein, boycotted legislative elections in January, and Sunni extremists have been the backbone of the insurgency.
In Washington, President Bush praised Iraqis for successfully holding the referendum.
“This is a very positive day for the Iraqi people and, as well, for world peace,” he said. “Democracies are peaceful countries.”
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in London that initial assessments indicated Iraqis had probably approved the constitution, although she said the turnout alone proved the political process has taken hold.
Many diplomats and analysts say they believe the constitution, which would formalize Iraq as a parliamentary democracy with Islam as a principal source of its laws, would bring a measure of peace and stability.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
