And now for unity? Alas, not yet

摘要

The sharpest contrast with Iraq's last general election, in January, was in the Sunni Arab towns of the country's centre and west. Last time in those areas there was a mass boycott. This time, on December 15th, streets were festooned with banners, people waited happily in queues outside polling stations, and celebrated in jubilation after exercising their right to vote. Attacks by insurgents were rare, thanks largely to a truce called by several of the better-known groups. An early estimate was that 70% of registered voters, across the country, turned out. But the business of creating a national coalition government, embracing a representative swathe of Shia Arabs, Sunni Arabs and Kurds, will be as tricky as before, when a government took nearly three months to emerge. The haggling, long before official results are out, has already begun.