Iraq election illegitimate in Sunni eyes

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's leading Sunni Muslim clerics said Wednesday the country's landmark elections lacked legitimacy because large numbers of Sunnis did not participate in the balloting, which the religious leaders had asked them to boycott.\nEmboldened by the elections, which U.S. and Iraqi authorities cited as a victory for democracy, the police chief in Mosul demanded the insurgents hand over weapons within two weeks or he would "wipe out" anyone giving them shelter.\nThe level of insurgent violence has appeared to drop sharply after the election.\nIt is unclear whether the drop is due to disillusionment within insurgent ranks, the effects of the stringent pre-election security measures that are being slowly relaxed, or whether the militants have paused to reassess their strategy in light of the ballot.\n"The coming days and weeks will show whether this retreat will continue or whether it is tactical because of the strike against them," interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi told Al-Iraqiya television.\n"I don't know if what happened is a decrease (in attacks) that will continue or will escalate, but the final outcome is that it is a failure. They will continue for months but this (insurgency) will end. These dark forces will not be able to succeed."\nWith the threat of election violence past, the U.S. Army handed over control Wednesday of several combat outposts to Iraqi security forces on the west side of Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city.\nAllawi hosted a meeting of leaders from 16 of the country's prominent political factions Wednesday, his office said.\nThe leaders, who included President Ghazi al-Yawer, Sunni elder politician Adnan Pachachi and Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, a Shiite, agreed to pursue the participation of all political, ethnic and religious groups in the new government, the statement said.\nLarge numbers of majority Shiite Muslims and Kurds participated in Sunday's election for a new National Assembly and regional parliaments. Although no results or turnout figures have been released, U.S. officials say participation appeared much lower in Sunni areas where the insurgency is strongest.\nThe low turnout has been blamed variously on the clerics' own boycott call and on fears of insurgent reprisals against those who voted.\nIn its first statement since the balloting, the Association of Muslim Scholars said the vote lacked legitimacy because of low Sunni participation. The association months ago urged Sunnis to shun the polls because of the presence of U.S. and other foreign troops, and insurgents threatened to kill anyone who voted.\nIraqi officials have acknowledged voting problems, including a ballot shortage in Baghdad, Basra and Mosul, which have substantial Sunni populations and which also may have contributed to a low Sunni turnout.\nWith many Sunnis having stayed away, a ticket endorsed by the Shiite clergy is expected to gain the biggest number of seats in the 275-member National Assembly, followed by the Kurds and a list headed by interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite.\nShiites comprise an estimated 60 percent of Iraq's 26 million people, and Shiite candidates were expected to fare best regardless of Sunni turnout. Low Sunni participation was believed to have reduced the totals of other tickets.\nAbdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the Shiite Muslim who heads the ticket expected to have won the largest number of parliamentary seats, indicated in a Wednesday interview with The Associated Press that his group wants the post of prime minister in Iraq's new government.\nAl-Hakim, a Shiite cleric with close ties to Iran, said representatives of all Iraqi groups should participate in writing the new constitution.\nThe association said the election "lacks legitimacy because a large portion of these people who represent many spectra have boycotted it." As a result, the group said the new leadership lacked a mandate to draft a new constitution and should be considered a temporary administration.