Iraqi voters ratify constitution

Vote followed sectarian lines

BAGHDAD — Final election results released Tuesday show Iraq’s constitution was easily approved by voters, marking a key step in the country’s political evolution and clearing the way for parliamentary elections in mid- December.

“ It is a civilized step that aims to put Iraq on the path to true democracy,” Iraqi election commission of cial Farid Ayar said.

Voters in the Oct. 15 referendum diverged sharply along sectarian lines, raising concerns that Sunni Arab opponents will remain alienated from the country’s move toward democracy.

“ What is the value of the people who took a risk and went to vote?” said Saleh al- Mutlak, spokesman for National Dialogue, a Sunni political group. “ It will make them lose hope and turn them toward extremism.”

Nationwide, nearly 79% of the 9.8 million voters approved the charter, the Electoral Commission reported.

Two heavily Sunni provinces rejected the constitution by wide margins. In Anbar province, west of Baghdad, 97% voted against the document. In Salah al- Din, north of the capital, 82% rejected it.

The referendum would have been defeated if two- thirds of the voters in any three of the 18 provinces voted against it.

The key province turned out to be Ninevah, a mixed region of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, where 55% voted against the constitution — belowthe two- thirds threshold.

The Electoral Commission also said it was still investigating 135 registered complaints. The vote was monitored by 52,000 Iraqi of cials overseen by 685 United Nation monitors. Results will not be of cially certi ed until all complaints are investigated.

Also Tuesday, two suicide car bombers struck in the Kurdish province of Sulaimaniyah, killing 12 people. On an Internet posting, AlQaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for those attacks and one on Monday that targeted Baghdad’s Palestine and Sheraton hotels, which house Western journalists and contractors. Contributing: The Associated Press