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My personal musings about anything that gets on my radar screen--heavily dominated by politics.

2005-10-16

Meanwhile, Back On The Main Story

It is beginning to look a lot like the Iraqis have ratified the draft Constitution.

As expected, two of the heavily Sunni provinces--Salheddin and Anbar--seem to have rejected the Constitution, and, perhaps, by not a small margin.

The home province of ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, Salaheddin, has overwhelmingly rejected the new constitution in Iraq's referendum, the electoral commission said Sunday in the regional capital Tikrit.

At 78.5 per cent, more than two thirds of the eligible voters in the province said 'no' to the new constitution, the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (IECI) said after the vote count was almost complete one day after the referendum. . . .

In the restive city of Fallujah in Anbar province, where voter turnout was 90 per cent, 99 per cent of those who voted cast their ballots against the constitution.

However, if you recall, a rejection by more than two-thirds in THREE or more provinces was required to reject the whole Constitution.

The two other provinces with Sunni majorities are Ninive and Diyala. A large number of Shiites and Kurds live in Diyala so a two- thirds 'no' vote was not expected there.

In Ninive it was predicted that the capital Mosul, where many Kurds live, could tip the scales in favour of a 'yes' vote.

In fact, if the reporting at Powerline is correct--an unusual caveat for Powerline, but their numbers are unlinked--the Sunni majority itself approved, or at least failed to reject, the draft Constitution.

But in the other two Sunni-majority provinces, Diyala and Ninevah, it appears that most Sunnis supported the new constitution. In Diyala, 70% supported the referendum, with only 20% opposed. In Ninevah, with more than 80% of polling places reporting, 79% had voted in favor. There is no way to get those numbers unless most Sunnis voted "yes."

Yep, another stinging rebuke of the American Plan for Iraq.
Posted by: Michael / 10/16/2005 02:57:00 PM

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