Major defeat for Ayad Allawi - Butcher of Fallujah

post-gazette/latimes: Secular candidates not doing well in Iraq elections

A Shiite Muslim coalition built around Iraq's current governing alliance won a commanding number of seats in Dec. 15 elections, according to preliminary results released yesterday and unofficial reports from around the country.

Preliminary reports from 11 of Iraq's 18 provinces and other vote estimates indicate that Islamic-led parties or coalitions from all main ethnic groups will win at least 175 of the 275 seats in the new parliament. In addition, officials of the main Kurdish alliance in northern Iraq said they expected to win about 55 seats.

Despite millions spent on a highly visible mass media campaign, the results appeared to be a major defeat for Ayad Allawi, the pro-Western secular Shiite and one-time CIA-backed opposition figure favored by American officials in Baghdad and Washington [db: and London]. Read more

db: Is this the end of Allawi? Has he booked his flight to London? Political failure and ignominy in Iraq is no barrier to setting up a lucrative private medical practice in Knightsbridge.