Sunni Muslims took to the streets en masse to decry last week’s parliamentary elections. Sunnis claim the elections were rigged in favor of the Shiite-Kurd coalition, who are expected to dominate in the new parliament once the results are officially announced next month. Unlike in previous elections Sunnis turned out in force at the polls, but so too did the Shia and the Kurds.
By a form of reasoning that only makes sense to the Sunnis, who took time out of their busy schedule of killing their fellow Iraqis, the Sunnis should dominate, just as they did under the iron hand of Saddam Hussein. Sunni clerics have fanned the flames of discontentment among Sunnis, who will now certainly return their nasty habit of killing innocent men, women and children. Some blame, Shia dominated Iran for complicity in the “election fraud” as they see it.
There is one fact the Sunni seem to have forgotten. Shia, outnumber Sunni by a considerable margin in Iraq (in fact Sunni make up less than 20% of Iraq’s total population, while Shia account for over 60%), so it stands to reason that Shia candidates would dominate in a new parliament. According to some preliminary figures, the Iraq Accordance Front, a collation of Sunni Arab parties, received approximately 19% of the vote, which is directly proportionate to the Sunnis population in Iraq. The Sunni’s however, aren’t going to let a pesky thing like facts stand in the way of a good protest.
So what lies at the heart of these unfounded allegations, which were even rejected by the United Nations? The Sunnis are afraid a Shia dominated government will exact revenge on the Sunni for years of state sponsored murder and oppression. The Sunnis are making it known, through these protests, that if they don’t have their say in the new government, there will be no peace for Iraq, a promise they have already lived up to for well over a year.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-12-23-election-challenge_x.htm
