Iraq's Parliamentary Vote Results Certified

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RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

Officials have certified the final results of Iraq's parliamentary elections, one more hurdle that country has cleared towards forming a new government.

The ruling Shiite Muslim alliance has a near-majority in the Parliament, with the Kurdish alliance and the Arab Sunni parties dividing the remaining seats between them.

Joining me on the line from Baghdad is NPR's John Hendren. Good morning.

JOHN HENDREN reporting:

Good morning.

MONTAGNE: Now that the results are official, what happens?

HENDREN: Well, everybody's had plenty of time to prepare for this, because what this does is certify the results that we were already pretty sure were coming. The Shiites gain a near majority, but not a majority, so that means they have to team up with somebody. They are teaming up with the Kurdish alliance. Arab Sunni parties are teaming up with the liberal Shiite party of former Prime Minister Iyad Alawi. But they're still going to be a minority party. So, there's going to be a lot of bickering over who gets what cabinet ministries. And the big question is to what extent the Shiites and the Kurds will be willing to ameliorate the Sunnis by giving them some key ministries.

Parliament has to convene over the next two weeks, and they'll talk on forming a new government. They choose a new Prime Minister, the Prime Minister has to approve the ministers of the various cabinets. This is all not likely to happen in the next two or three months. As we found here, everything seems to take a little longer than it could. And the key questions are, really, the alliances.

MONTAGNE: And John, about the Sunni parties, they complained about what they said was widespread fraud in the elections right after the vote. So where does that stand? What role are they now expected to have in the new government?

HENDREN: The Sunnis are going to want a key ministry, either Defense or Ministry of Interior. They may argue for both. They, in particular, want a Sunni in charge of the Ministry of the Interior, if only to get rid of the man who's there now. The guy who's there now is Beon Jabar Sola(ph), who they consider a radical Shiite. And recently, you may recall that there were a couple of jails discovered, in which even U.S. military officials had found that Sunni prisoners had been tortured and starved.

The Sunnis really fear the police force, and they fear that it is run largely by Shiites, who want revenge over the 30 years in which Sunnis ran the country. MONTAGNE: John, in other news, there were reports today that a Sunni religious leader was kidnapped in Baghdad.

HENDREN: That's right. The victim was Adal Kalil del Wood(ph). All we know is that gunmen were wearing Iraqi police uniforms when they kidnapped him. This is one of the reasons why the debate over who gets the Ministry of the Interior is important, because Sunnis feel that the Shiites who run that ministry are abusing it. And this is going to be one of the incidents where you're likely to hear people complaining about what's going on.

MONTAGNE: And a new video of Jill Carroll, the American journalist kidnapped last month in Baghdad, that aired on a Kuwaiti television channel yesterday. What can you tell us about that?

HENDREN: That's right. She spoke very briefly. She was in absolute control, it looked like. But she was nodding vigorously as she spoke. Unlike last time, she didn't break down and cry. But she did say that time was short, and she asked people to please do whatever they want, in her words. She said give them whatever they want as quickly as possible, there is very short time. And that was it. She was wearing a head-scarf and appeared in good health.

MONTAGNE: NPR's John Hendren in Baghdad. Thanks, John.

HENDREN: Thank you, Renee.

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