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CORRECTED: Kurd polls keep status quo, U.S. urges Iraq peace
Thu Jul 30, 2009 11:21am EDT
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By Shamal Aqrawi
ARBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Opposition groups made a surprise gain in Iraqi Kurdistan's weekend elections, but ruling parties feuding with Arab leaders in Baghdad clung to power and are unlikely to end a standoff threatening Iraq's fragile calm.
The preliminary results from Saturday's presidential and parliamentary polls came shortly after U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates urged Kurdish leaders, in a visit to Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdish enclave, to act quickly to reduce tensions.
Gates met Masoud Barzani, re-elected as Kurdish president with 69.6 percent of the vote, a former guerrilla leader who has refused to yield on claims to the oil-producing Kirkuk region.
That and related disputes may pose the chief threat to Iraq as sectarian violence ebbs since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Gates on Wednesday said Washington, where officials are increasingly worried about the rift between minority Kurds and majority Arabs triggering renewed violence, offered "whatever assistance we can to help resolve these disputes in a peaceful manner," Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters.
The polls, the first time Iraqi Kurds elected a president directly, went off on Saturday without major disruptions. Electoral officials said turnout was close to 80 percent.
A reform-minded opposition movement, Change, took a surprise 23.8 percent of the parliamentary vote, but complained of fraud and aggression from the region's ruling two-party alliance.
"These figures contradicted the real will of the Kurdish people and were the result of organized forgery ... by the two parties in power," senior Change member Shamal Abdulla said.
An official from Iraq's national election commission said there had been eight serious complaints, but they were unlikely to affect the overall election results.
Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (KDP) took 57 percent of the parliamentary vote.
"We are happy with these preliminary results and with the success of this election. It is a proud day for our people," KDP official Jaafar Ibrahim said.
MALIKI CONGRATULATES BARZANI
There had been hopes that Iraqi and Kurd officials may be more ready to make concessions now that Kurdish electioneering, featuring fiery rhetoric about disputed land and oil, is over.
At a joint news conference, Barzani and Talabani said Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki would soon visit Kurdistan, and Talabani said they would "tackle problems together."
In what may be an olive branch between two leaders who barely speak, Maliki called Barzani to congratulate him on his poll win, state al-Iraqiya TV reported. Continued...
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