Word begins to trickle out...

MSNBC has this story documenting the release of the first partial results from Iraq's 30 Jan election:

The United Iraqi Alliance, which has the endorsement of Iraq’s top Shiite clerics, including the widely revered Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, won more than two-thirds of the 3.3 million votes counted so far, the election commission said. Allawi’s ticket was running second, with more than 579,700 votes.

The partial figures from Sunday’s contest for 275 National Assembly seats came from 10 of Iraq’s 18 provinces, said Hamdiyah al-Husseini, an election commission official. All 10 provinces have heavy Shiite populations, and the alliance had been expected to do well there. So far, 45 percent of the vote has been counted in Baghdad, with varying percentages tallied in the other nine provinces.

Similar to U.S. elections, it can be hard to determine the final percentages we'll see because the bulk of this reporting comes from the heavily Shiite regions. Perhaps most interesting in these numbers is the contrast between the UIA and Allawi's ticket. A poll released by IRI prior to the election seemed to indicate a growing degree of support for Allawi that many thought might translate into better-than-expected electoral results for his ticket. Allawi may get more votes from Shiites already living in mixed communities as well. I would suspect many Shiites with more Sunni and Kurd neighbors fear that a ticket too heavily dominated by strongly religious Shiites could prove more divisive than empowering.

Allawi's ticket has proven surprisingly weak among expat Iraqi voters:

The Alliance also won a plurality among the 265,000 votes cast by Iraqis abroad, with 36 percent, compared with 29 percent for the main Kurdish coalition and 9 percent for Allawi, according to a complete count released by the International Organization for Migration, which organized the vote in 14 countries.

Allawi, who lived in exile in Britain under Saddam’s rule, had been expected to draw support from many voters outside Iraq.

Buried within MSNBC's newsbot, I also found this heartening piece regarding Sunni willingness to work with the National Assembly in forging the nation's new constitution. This cooperation is considered key to winning moderate Sunni support for the newly-elected government:

After months of strident rejection of the elections in Iraq, two top groups from the minority Sunni Muslim population said Friday that they'd join in drafting the nation's constitution.

If the groups participate - there have been many past reversals - it would be a significant step toward bringing Sunnis into the political process and stemming sectarian divides that could cause civil unrest.

[...]

Shiite leaders have reached out to the Sunnis in an attempt, many believe, to reduce the chances of civil war. Major Shiite political leaders have asked the Sunnis to participate in writing the constitution.

The largest Sunni political party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, said it was responding to that outreach. Aila al Maki, a member of the party's political office, said the elections and crafting the constitution were two different processes.

"We will participate actively in the writing of the constitution," Maki said. "It is our right because we are all Iraqis."

Ahmed al Samaraee, a senior leader for the Sunni Muslim Scholars Association, said his organization would meet with the United Iraqi Alliance for talks about the constitution.

"We're with any list chosen and supported by the Iraqi people, but we want this list to ensure the unity of this country, to see this country as one family and not to listen to the occupiers," he said.

Iraq
Elections