Allawi's Fallujah airstrikes not forgotten by voters

Juan Cole - Informed Comment: Allawi's approval rating had steadily declined from the time he was appointed. Some thought that Sunni Arabs might vote for him in some numbers. Maybe in Baghdad a few did. But I always thought that idea a weak reed. First, few Sunni Arabs voted. Second, Allawi kept calling for more US airstrikes against Fallujah. Why would that endear him to Sunni Arabs?

John Burns and Dexter Filkin of the NYT [may need subsciption or bugmenot] report that initial voting returns now leaking out from Baghdad and some southern, Shiite provinces, suggest that the United Iraqi Alliance, the coalition of Shiite religious parties blessed by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, is getting 72 percent of the vote. It won't get that on a nation-wide basis, since it won't have done well in the areas north and west of the capital. But it certainly will form the next government. Allawi's list is likely to end up with less than 40 seats in the 275-seat parliament. Link to full Juan Cole item.