Monday 14 February 2005, 0:20 Makka Time, 21:20 GMT
Democracy in Iraq will have a long way to go since many politicians are now discussing about the lack of the Sunni votes in the January 30 election.
Adnan Pachachi an influential Sunni politician, expressed his ideas about the election on a tv interview on Sunday, claiming that most of the Sunnis did not vote and consequently that Iraq is not completely represented by the new government.
Pachachi's party is not going to win any of the 275 seats of the National Assembly, he said, "In a way the result was expected to a large extent, because millions of Iraqis didn't vote," and "Those who voted are around eight million only, but around 14 million were eligible to vote."
The Sunni politician leader wants the next election to be expression of every ethnic group of the country so that the parliament will be well representing the Iraqi people.
Refferring to the lack of Sunni votes he said, "I am not satisfied with the result".
"After the seats are distributed we will see a small number for Sunni Arabs and also a small number of secular Iraqis," Pachachi said. "The image of Iraq that these results suggest is not real. That is obvious."
"We have to move on with the political process and start to work on the next election," he added.
Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Barham Sali echoed the issue in a press interwiev with the CNN saying, "Undoubtedly, that is a concern, but we have to all accept the challenge and make sure that we reach out to all the communities of Iraq, because as we build this new nation, as we embark on devising the new political contract in Iraq, we must emphasise inclusiveness, and we must reach out to all elements of society."
He was asked about the role of the Kurds in the country and responded,
"We will build a democratic nation that will be at peace with its people, including the Kurdish people."
"The Kurdistan Alliance list will be nominating Jalal Talabani to the post of the president of Iraq, and we believe that he has the qualities of leadership and respectability to assume that position, and we are working with other blocs in the parliament that we anticipated will be represented there to make sure that will happen," he added.
Il Romanaccio at 12:00 PM
