Sunnis claim fraud wrecked chances in Iraq election
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Sunni leaders alleged Tuesday that rampant fraud in last week's election squelched the voice of their supporters as election officials released a preliminary tally for the entire country that indicates the main Shiite religious bloc will have the dominant hand in forming the next government. Adnan al-Dulaimi, head of the leading Sunni political alliance, the Iraqi Accordance Front, said the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq should take unspecified measures to change the election results that he and many other Sunni leaders say were skewed by intimidation and ballot forgery. In Baghdad, for example, al-Dulaimi's group and the secular Shiite list headed by Ayad Allawi were expected to make strong showings. But Dulaimi's slate only took 19 percent of the vote and Allawi 14 percent, while the Shiite bloc won 59 percent. Sunni leaders allege that in many cases their supporters were prevented from casting votes, ballots were tampered with and militias aligned with the main Shiite religious parties stood outside polling places intimidating voters.
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