Juan Cole

Shiites Take Absolute Majority in Parliament Iran Scores Victory in the Iraqi Elections Lebanese Broadcasting Co.’s satellite television news is reporting that the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), comprising Shiite religious parties, has won an absolute majority (141 seats) after adjustments were made in accordance with electoral procedure. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the list leader, expressed his […]

AMS on its Role in Forcing Elections Thanks to Gilbert Ashcar for kindly sharing and permitting the reprinting of his translation of this recent article from al-Hayat, which is revealing of attitudes in the Sunni fundamentalist group, the Association of Muslim Scholars. Al-Kubaisi to “Al-Hayat”: The Resistance Forced the Americans to Form the Governing Council […]

Committee to Protect Bloggers The Committee to Protect Bloggers is proposing a special campaign for imprisoned Iranian bloggers on Tuesday, February 22. This is a great idea.

Platform of the Al-Hakims The leader of the United Iraqi Alliance, which is likely to have a majority of seats in parliament when the smoke clears, is Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. He is the successor and younger brother of Muhammad Baqir al-Hakim (assassinated August 29, 2003). This is the program announced by the latter on his […]

Distribution of Seats in Iraqi Parliament Al-Hayat [Arabic link] has printed the number of seats won by all the small parties in the Iraqi elections. The total number of seats is 275. What it shows is that the religious Shiites easily have a majority if they pull in a few small parties. I count 6 […]

Shiites, Kurds, win Big Bush Loses Election in Iraq Some key election results are now being reported for Iraq. The statistics available point to about 8.5 million voters out of an eligible 14 million. The electoral commission said that the turnout was 58 percent. The Sunni Arabs (20 percent of the population and the former […]

SCIRI Sweeps Provincial Elections in South There is a rumor going around that interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has formed a parliamentary coaltion with the Kurds in a bid to create a government, which requires a 2/3s majority in parliament. If the United Iraqi Alliance gets more than about 36 percent of the seats, however, […]

31 Killed Friday, 17 early Saturday On Saturday, guerrillas set off a car bomb in the mixed Sunni-Shiite city of Musayyib. The bomb killed 17 and wounded 16, including 3 policemen. The explosion at the Shiite mosque was at Balad Ruz, northeast of Baghdad. The bomb was in a vegetable truck. In East Baghdad, guerrillas […]

Over 50 Dead in Iraq Carnage as Rumsfeld Visits Anthony Shadid of the Washington Post reports carnage in Iraq on Thursday. A huge car bomb ripped through Liberation Square in Baghdad, killing four. A US convoy had just passed through. Guerrillas at Salman Pak attacked a police station, killing between 6 and 14 Iraqi policemen […]