Shi'ite bloc short of Iraq parliament majority: source

[farquar]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Islamist Shi'ite Alliance bloc will fall short of retaining its parliamentary majority after last month's election, according to an almost final tally of seats in the chamber obtained by Reuters on Friday.

With six of 275 seats yet to be allocated, the Alliance and their present Kurdish coalition partners were also one seat shy of the two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution, figures provided by source at the Electoral Commission showed.Sunni Arab parties, which boycotted last January's vote for the interim assembly, have been disappointed at the results but appear ready to take part in a grand coalition government. http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-01-13T155007Z_01_DIT356947_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-ELECTION.xml&archived=False

[JJLL]

One seat shy.... isn't that always the way.

Well, lets hope an official gov't is in place soon.

Thanks for the post.

From the link above:

Seats provisionally break down as follows:

United Iraqi Alliance 129

Kurdish Alliance 52

Iraqi Accordance Front 42

Iraqi National List 25

Iraqi Front for National Dialogue 10

Kurdish Islamic Alliance 5

Risaliyoon 2

Reconciliation and Liberation Bloc 2

Patriotic Rafidain Party 1

Iraqi Turkmen Front 1

Still unallocated 6

TOTAL 275

[trusty]

Al-Qaeda in disarray as Iraqi Sunnis turn against them
12 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AFP)
Al-Qaeda (http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Iraq) is in disarray with many killed or captured, and Sunni supporters increasingly turning against them, a top US commander in Iraq said.

http://p243.news.mud.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060113/pl_afp/usiraqmilitary_060113164635;_ylt=AkaTEQKJF2.n2aFVI .DQiVhX6GMA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

Trusty

[dreamscometrue]

Al-Qaeda in disarray as Iraqi Sunnis turn against them
12 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AFP)
Al-Qaeda (http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Iraq) is in disarray with many killed or captured, and Sunni supporters increasingly turning against them, a top US commander in Iraq said.

http://p243.news.mud.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060113/pl_afp/usiraqmilitary_060113164635;_ylt=AkaTEQKJF2.n2aFVI .DQiVhX6GMA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

Trusty

I'm not sure if this is spin or the US commander believe that ,as something like this has been said now for 2 years. What I would love to see is more Sunni leaders speak out against Al-Qaeda and the insurgents. That would be a clear case of them losing support .So far that from everything I have read is not happened as often as is should.

I do believe it is moving in that direction but not there yet .Hopefully when they take seats in the government, they will be hard pressed to support random bombings and killings .Hopefully then they will have to be more vocal in support of the political process that they are part of.