Our man in Baghdad can't even even beat the Communist Party among Iraqi-American voters! The AP reports:
A Shiite coalition endorsed by clerics won most of the absentee ballots cast by Iraqis living abroad, although the main Kurdish party had a strong showing, according to completed results released Friday. The list led by U.S.-backed Prime Minister Ayad Allawi came in a distant third, despite expectations that the former exile leader — who lived for years in Great Britain — would do well among voters abroad.
The United Iraqi Alliance, which has the endorsement of Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, received 95,318 votes, or 36.15 percent of the valid 263,685 absentee ballots. It got a huge boost from Iraqis living in mostly Shiite Iran. [Is that a good sign?]
The main Kurdish coalition came second with 78,062 votes, or 29.6 percent, backed by the large Kurdish communities in Britain, Germany and Sweden in particular. Allawi's "Iraqi List" took 24,136 votes, or 9.15 percent, doing its strongest in Syria and Jordan. [Hey, I thought Syria was our enemy! So how come our boy does best in Syria?] ...
In the United States, where more than 24,000 Iraqis cast ballots, the Alliance was strongest with over 31 percent, while Allawi's list came in sixth with around four percent — coming not only behind the Kurds but also behind two tiny Assyrian Christian parties and a communist-led party. [That's pathetic.]
More than 265,000 Iraqis turned out to vote in the 14 nations, out of 1.2 million eligible Iraqis abroad. [Not a very good turnout. Presumably, a lot of overseas Sunnis boycotted the election.]
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