Iraq's electoral commission Thursday certified the results of the country's Jan. 30 elections and allocated 140 National Assembly seats to the United Iraqi Alliance, giving this Shiite-dominated party a majority in the new parliament.
The first meeting of the National Assembly will have 10 months to draft a new constitution. The assembly will soon elect a president and two vice presidents and then will approve a prime minister nominated by the president and vice presidents.
The Shiite list won 48 percent of the vote and the Kurdish alliance received 26 percent of the vote, giving it 75 seats. Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi won 14 percent.
A redistribution of the votes from the 99 parties that did not win enough votes to get parliament seats gave the Shiite alliance control of more than half of the assembly's 275 seats. Only 12 party groupings would take seats, The AP reported.
Despite the majority, the United Iraqi Alliance will still need partners for certain moves. For instance, a two-thirds majority is needed to select a president and two vice presidents.
Meanwhile, a bomb detonated Thursday as a convoy of U.S. troops and Iraqi National Guardsmen moved on a road in Hawija, wounding seven Iraqi troops,
Also, gunmen opened fire on patrolling Iraqi National Guardsmen in Hillah, some 100 kms south of the capital, sparking a shootout that killed two armed men and wounded three Guardsmen, Maj. Fatik Iyd said.
