Coaltion of Iraqi parties threaten to boycott the new parliament

[Thom Little]

Sunni Arabs and moderate Shias have threatened to boycott Iraq's new parliament, demanding a new election after alleging that last week's polls were fraudulent.

After what appeared to have been a largely successful and peaceful election afforded the Iraqi people a brief interlude of near-normality, the country was back in the more familiar territory of political turmoil.

Representatives of 35 voting blocs rejected the partial results of the election released so far.

In a joint statement, the parties called for an international review of more than 1,500 allegations of irregularities lodged with Iraq's electoral commission.

.......

Sunni Arabs, from whose ranks the bulk of the insurgency is drawn, would again feel disenfranchised while the restraining influences of secular Shias such as the former prime minister Iyad Allawi would also be absent.

"These elections are fraudulent and the next parliament is illegitimate," said Ibrahim al-Janabi, a spokesman for Mr Allawi. "We reject the whole process."



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/12/23/wirq23.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/12/23/ixworld.html

[DemInDistress]

1. they want a "DO-OVER" rotf...