Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
TIKRIT, Iraq, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Iraq's Salahaddin province, one of
at least three with a Sunni Arab majority that might combine to veto the
draft constitution, voted "No" by 70 percent in Saturday's referendum, an
electoral official said on Sunday.
The results were not final and were subject to further counts,
electoral officials said.
"The 'No' percentage is 70 percent," Electoral Commission official
Saleh Khalil Farraj said in the provincial capital Tikrit, hometown of
Saddam Hussein. "Turnout is 80 percent."
The head of the national Electoral Commission in Baghdad, Hussein
al-Hendawi, said he was unaware such figures had been collated yet. Speaking
in London, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said overall the
referendum "probably passed."
With a second Sunni-populated province, Anbar, likely to reject the
charter by an even greater margin, much depends on whether a third province
also produces a two-thirds "No" vote.
With hefty votes for the constitution recorded in mainly Shi'ite
southern provinces and also expected in Kurdistan, an overall national
majority in favour is widely forecast.
But if three of 18 provinces vote by at least two-thirds to reject
the charter, it will fail under a clause originally written in by Kurdish
negotiators to protect their interests.
No overall voting figures were available for Anbar, where fighting
and fear of insurgents kept many polling stations closed. But Saadullah
al-Rawi, head of the Electoral Commission for the province said that in
Falluja, a bastion of Sunni militancy, 90 percent of people voted and 99
percent said "No".
No results were available in two other provinces where "No"
majorities are seen as possible -- Nineveh, centred on Mosul in the north,
and Diyala, around Baquba, northeast of Baghdad.
In the solidly Shi'ite provinces of Kerbala and Najaf, south of
Baghdad, local electoral officials put the "Yes" vote at 85 percent.
(Reporting by Ghaswan al-Jibouri in Tikrit, Fadil al-Badrani in Falluja,
Sami Jumaili in Kerbala and Khaled Farhan in Najaf)
at least three with a Sunni Arab majority that might combine to veto the
draft constitution, voted "No" by 70 percent in Saturday's referendum, an
electoral official said on Sunday.
The results were not final and were subject to further counts,
electoral officials said.
"The 'No' percentage is 70 percent," Electoral Commission official
Saleh Khalil Farraj said in the provincial capital Tikrit, hometown of
Saddam Hussein. "Turnout is 80 percent."
The head of the national Electoral Commission in Baghdad, Hussein
al-Hendawi, said he was unaware such figures had been collated yet. Speaking
in London, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said overall the
referendum "probably passed."
With a second Sunni-populated province, Anbar, likely to reject the
charter by an even greater margin, much depends on whether a third province
also produces a two-thirds "No" vote.
With hefty votes for the constitution recorded in mainly Shi'ite
southern provinces and also expected in Kurdistan, an overall national
majority in favour is widely forecast.
But if three of 18 provinces vote by at least two-thirds to reject
the charter, it will fail under a clause originally written in by Kurdish
negotiators to protect their interests.
No overall voting figures were available for Anbar, where fighting
and fear of insurgents kept many polling stations closed. But Saadullah
al-Rawi, head of the Electoral Commission for the province said that in
Falluja, a bastion of Sunni militancy, 90 percent of people voted and 99
percent said "No".
No results were available in two other provinces where "No"
majorities are seen as possible -- Nineveh, centred on Mosul in the north,
and Diyala, around Baquba, northeast of Baghdad.
In the solidly Shi'ite provinces of Kerbala and Najaf, south of
Baghdad, local electoral officials put the "Yes" vote at 85 percent.
(Reporting by Ghaswan al-Jibouri in Tikrit, Fadil al-Badrani in Falluja,
Sami Jumaili in Kerbala and Khaled Farhan in Najaf)