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Iraq's Shia alliance won a slim majority of seats in the country's new National Assembly, the Iraqi Electoral Commission said on Thursday, based on final results from last month's historic election. The United Iraqi Alliance, a coalition of mainly Shia Islamist religious parties, had been allocated 140 seats in the 275-seat National Assembly, the Commission said in a statement. Around 8.5 million votes were cast, representing a turnout of some 58 percent of the more than 14 million eligible voters.

A combined Kurdish bloc, which polled the second highest number of votes in the January 30 ballot, won 75 seats and the list led by US-backed interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shi'ite, got 40 seats, the Electoral Commission said.

A two-thirds majority is required to approve the appointment of a president and two vice-presidents, the next step in the process. The Shia alliance and Kurdish bloc could together form such a majority and are expected to do so.

The Alliance polled around 48 percent of the national vote - somewhat less than the 60 percent that they had hoped for. The Kurds won almost 26 percent and Allawi received around 14 percent.

Because dozens of parties failed to muster enough votes to gain any seats, those parties that were elected to parliament have a larger share of seats than their share of the vote.

Kidnapped Iraqi-Swede appeals for help

DUBAI: An abducted Swede of Iraqi descent who heads a Christian party in Iraq appealed in a video tape aired on Thursday for Sweden and the Vatican to help secure his release, Al Arabiya television reported.

"I appeal to Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, His Holiness the Pope, world Christian parties and the Association of Iraqi Muslim Clerics ... to work towards freeing me," a man identified as Minas al-Yousifi said in the tape.

The grey-haired man sat in front of a black banner of the Iraqi Vengeance Batallion - Martyr al-Isawy Brigades. The 60-year-old politician was abducted about 2 weeks ago.

US soldier killed

A US soldier was killed and three wounded Wednesday in a car bomb attack in the restive northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the US military announced Thursday.

Copyright Reuters, 2005


Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005


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