Word: sunni
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However, though the election did not fall prey to forecasts of doom, there are certainly issues that must be addressed. The troublingly low turnout of Sunni voters, estimated to be as little as 20 percent of those eligible, stands out as a main blemish on an otherwise admirable effort on the part of the Iraqi government and the United States armed forces. It is not yet known with any certainty exactly why Sunni turnout was so low; while many voters might have stayed away in protest, it seems likely that were kept away because of poll closings, inadequate ballots...
...Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani. Still, they may see the Sistani list as a more viable government, if they can strike a deal that gives the Shiites the power they seek in Baghdad in exchange for de facto Kurdish independence in the northern provinces - largely at the expense of Sunni Arabs and ethnic Turkmen in Kirkuk and other contested areas. Ultimately, however, the Kurds are likely to choose the horse that appears most likely to secure their interest in entrenching, and even expanding, their de facto independence...
...initial estimate of a 72 percent turnout was revised down to 57 percent of eligible voters - later around 60 percent - with the ethnic breakdown as expected: Strong voter turnout among the long-marginalized Shiites and Kurds, who together comprise over 80 percent of the population; poor turnout among the Sunni Arabs in whose name the insurgency fights. Still, the very fact of Iraq's next government being chosen at the ballot box entrenches the principle that no government can claim legitimacy in Iraq without a democratic popular mandate. There can be no underestimating the epic significance of that principle...
...have been considerably higher had not banning all vehicles from the roads prevented car bombings. But the insurgents are almost certain to redouble their efforts in the coming weeks, as if to show that the election hasn't altered the strategic reality. And as long as turnout out in Sunni areas was low and the community questions the legitimacy of its outcome, they'll have achieved their basic strategic objective for the campaign season...
...getting the U.S. out is one point of consensus between the radical Sunni Arab insurgents and the moderate Shiite Arab Islamists that look set to emerge with the largest share of Sunday?s vote, they also share a common hostility to Kurdish secessionism. Grand Ayatollah Sistani has made no secret of his hostility to the provisions of the Transitional Administrative Law - the interim constitution crafted under U.S. direction - that gives the Kurds an effective veto over a new constitution. The Kurd-Arab distinction may yet prove as powerful a destabilizing factor as the Sunni-Shiite one in the months ahead...