IRAQ - Dec 22 - Sunnis Threaten Boycott Of Parliament.

The main Sunni Arab coalition and the list headed by secular Shiite former PM Iyad Allawi are among 35 groups that called the Dec 15 Iraqi elections illegitimate and threatens to boycott parliament. The groups, in a statement, demanded that their complaints about voter intimidation and fraud be addressed, and accused the country's Independent Elections Commission of abetting the violations. They asked that the vote be audited by international organisations. A boycott would be a big setback to the development of a political democratic process that Iraqis have slowly begun to adopt and to accept as legitimate. Results released over the past week show the main Shiite coalition, the UIA, or "555" after its number on the ballot, receiving some 44% of all ballots counted so far, compared with 48% in January elections. Preliminary calculations suggest that the main Sunni groups will together receive between 15 and 20% of seats in parliament, as will the main Kurdish coalition. Allawi, meanwhile, received a sharp drop in his total, gaining only about 8% of the vote, compared with 14% in January. The division of seat allocations between provinces, the expatriate vote and a complicated system of allocating "compensatory" seats make it difficult to calculate how many seats the UIA will receive in the 275-seat parliament. The UIA vote total appears to have withstood the influx of millions of new Sunni voters into the political process. Analysts believe the UIA may have offset that influx thanks to the participation of the radical Shiite Sadrist movement and because of diminished fears among more secular Shiite that the UIA was planning to impose theological rule. The UIA's opponents, however, believe the UIA cheated. They have filed hundreds of complaints against the coalition, accusing it of storming into polling stations, particularly in heavily Shiite neighbourhoods, and voting multiple times. Poll monitors allegedly turned away voters who said they would vote for lists other than UIA. Sunni Arabs also are upset that they appear not to have won as much as they expected. Sunni Arabs are usually estimated to number 20% of the population but often claim that they are a majority in the country and in Baghdad, in particular. In the capital, however, the UIA took 58% of the vote, compared with 19% that went to the main Sunni coalition and the 14% received by Allawi. For this reason alone, many Sunnis will doubt the results. Prior to the election, one outspoken Sunni politician, Saleh Al Mutlek, said he would suspect fraud if the UIA received more than a third of the vote. Also at stake is the credibility of the IECI, which monitored voting in January and in October's constitutional referendum with the assistance of the UN. Commission officials say they have the capacity to investigate any complaints by auditing ballot boxes, counting sheets and voter sheets, and can annul the result from any polling station where fraud clearly occurred. The UIA's opponents, however, say the IECI is reluctant to follow up complaints of campaign violations, including violence against Allawi's campaign workers, and suggest that it does not have the political will to take on the UIA. Before the election Sunnis called for international monitors, but most foreign agencies were unwilling to risk the lives of personnel in violence-torn Iraq. The US and the UK have expended considerable diplomatic effort trying to win the confidence of Sunni leaders. The two countries have also staked their credibility on the democratic process, with officials praising turnout estimated to be about 70% and doubting that violations would seriously influence results.