Iraqi Elections
After the US entry into Iraq, the Iraqi system of government was considered to be unstable. To rectify this, on January 31st, 2005, elections were held across the country. The Iraqis chose to elect a transitional form of government, and set to them the task of drafting a permanent constitution before an equally permanent government could be formally installed. Saddam Hussein was their leader for almost nine years, and this was their first voting in decades. The happy occasion was somewhat affected by violence and violent protests alike, and a Sunni boycott similarly marred the event, but it was overall a great success, with an estimated 8.6 million voters. The election was primarily for deciding who of the 111 lists would be awarded assembly seats. The United Iraqi Alliance, an electoral coalition dominated by Shiites, won the majority of assembly seats, gaining 140 of them owing to their 4.08 million votes. The Kurdish parties of the DPAK (Democratic Patriotic Alliance of Kurdistan), who were running against the United Iraqi Alliance in particular, though the other lists were viewed with varying levels of wariness where appropriate, won 75 out of the 275 seats available. The Iraqi List took third with some 14% of votes, earning 40 seats. The rest of the seats were divided accordingly amongst nine other parties, while the remainder received none. The election in itself marked a period of change in the Iraqi government, as the term transitional would suggest. This election was just the first of what will most likely become many, and its results may have decided the fate of the country.
