Elections in Iraq should unite us all
Iraqi elections

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told the Commons today that the “elections were a moving demonstration that democracy and freedom are universal values, to which people everywhere aspire.”

First, however, let me deal with the tragic crash of the RAF C130 Hercules aircraft in Iraq. As the House will be aware, the aircraft came down approximately 30 kilometres to the North West of Baghdad, at half past four in the afternoon Iraq time yesterday. The aircraft was flying from Baghdad International Airport to Balad Airbase. The site has been secured, and we are investigating the cause of the crash. The House will understand that it would be wrong at this stage to speculate about possible causes.

10 UK service personnel were onboard the aircraft and are presumed killed: nine from the Royal Air Force and one from the Army. Their next of kin are being informed. The Ministry of Defence will release the names of those who were onboard only once this process is complete and the families have been given time to inform other loved ones and friends. I know the House will join me in sending our deepest condolences and sympathy to the families of these brave men and to their comrades.

Yesterday’s elections in Iraq demonstrated the vital importance of what those and thousands of other brave British servicemen and women have been helping to achieve there.

Only two years ago, Iraq was still under the sway of one of the most ruthless dictators in the world. Dissent was punishable by torture and summary execution – with an estimated 300,000 people buried in mass graves during the period of Saddam's dictatorship..

The last time that the Iraqi people voted was in the staged elections of Saddam's tyranny – with just one candidate, a man who had been flouting the will of the United Nations for twelve long years.

Yesterday, in contrast, the elections took place in implementation of a mandate from the United Nations – for it was the Security Council in Resolution 1546 which laid down the timetable and process for these elections, and the steps which will follow. Yesterday, the Iraqi people had the choice not of one but of some 8,000 candidates for the new National Assembly, from 111 different political parties and entities, and 11,000 candidates in regional and Kurdish elections. One third of the candidates in the national elections were women.

While turnout figures will not be available for some days, it is already clear from initial estimates that a substantial proportion of the Iraqi population took part in these elections. Turnout appears to have been especially high in the North and South of the country, among both men and women.

The turnout in Sunni majority areas was lower, mainly because of the high penetration of insurgents threatening to kill voters. However in other areas where Sunni Arabs were able to vote freely, they appear to have done so in good numbers. Simon Collis, British Consul-General in Basra, told me this afternoon that some 50% of Sunnis in that province may have voted. He described the 'extraordinary atmosphere' in Basra as families went out to vote, taking along their children dressed in their smartest festive clothing.

Polling was also brisk in the mixed Sunni-Shia suburbs of Baghdad, the largest centre of the Sunni population. In Mosul, extra polling stations had to be opened when turnout exceeded expectations.

Yesterday’s elections were monitored by some 22,000 domestic election observers, 33,000 party officials, and some 120 international monitors accredited to the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq. I arranged that three of the monitors should come from this House on an all-party basis: the Hon Members for the Forest of Dean [Diana Organ], Blaby [Andrew Robathan] and Torridge and West Devon [John Burnett]. My Rt Hon Friend for Cynon Valley [Ann Clwyd] also observed the elections, as did the Noble Baroness Nicholson on behalf of the European Parliament.

Electoral procedures are reported to have worked efficiently throughout the country. Jean-Pierre Kingsley, the Canadian head of the International Mission for Iraqi Elections, has described the election as a 'very good process'. My Hon Friend the Member for the Forest of Dean [Diana Organ] described arrangements in the town of Maysan as 'model'.

I should like to pay tribute to the Independent Electoral Commission and to their advisers from the United Nations, led by the quite exceptional international diplomat Carlos Valenzuela, for their outstanding work in assisting the Iraqis and ensuring that yesterday's elections ran smoothly. I also want to thank our Ambassador Edward Chaplin and all our staff in Baghdad, Basra and Kirkuk for the excellent job which they did in covering the elections.

No-one expected these first free elections in half a century to be perfect. But they went far better than many had anticipated, and they are all the more remarkable given the circumstances in which they were held.

We have grown used to insurgents in Iraq who attack any and every group and organisation working to rebuild the country. The Iraqi people most of all have suffered from this terrorist violence. And the insurgents had made clear that they would use the vilest means possible to stop yesterday's elections from running smoothly, or at all. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a leader of the terrorism in Iraq, declared last week that democracy was an 'evil principle'. He and his henchmen – many, like him, not Iraqis themselves – sent suicide bombers to attack polling stations and other areas associated with the elections, with the message: If you vote, you die.

Yesterday’s elections represent a real blow to this disgusting campaign of violence and intimidation.

In Sadr City in Baghdad, for example, a mortar attack at a polling station in a local school left a number of people wounded. However, Multi-National Forces troops at the site report that people simply helped the wounded, and then along with those who could, rejoined the queue to vote. In Sunni areas in central Iraq, large groups of people defied terrorist intimidation and walked several kilometres to polling stations to cast their votes.

These elections were a moving demonstration that democracy and freedom are universal values, to which people everywhere aspire.

The fact that not a single suicide bomber managed to get through the security cordons around polling stations is a great tribute to the bravery and effectiveness of Iraq's own security forces - it was they who were in the front line. I pay tribute to them, and to the troops of the UN-mandated Multi-National Force who helped to maintain security around the polling stations across Iraq. Several policemen were killed when suicide bombers unable to get through their rigorous searches blew themselves up. Our thoughts are with their families and those of all the Iraqis who lost their lives in yesterday’s violence.

As Iraq’s Interim Prime Minister, Dr Ayad Allawi, said this morning, 'There will still be violence, but the terrorists now know that they cannot win'.

We have seen the determination of the Iraqi people to participate in building a more secure and democratic future for their country. We now need to support them as they continue that process.

The Independent Electoral Commission expect to publish the results within ten days of the elections, and to certify those results by 20 February.

Yesterday's elections were for a Transitional National Assembly of 275 members, elected on a wholly-proportional system. Its first task will be to elect a three-person Presidency which will in turn appoint a Prime Minister and Cabinet, whom the Assembly will be asked to approve. This Iraqi Transitional Government will then be sworn in and the Interim Government will dissolve. We expect this to take place by the end of February. As UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said, 'the success of these elections augurs well for the transition process'.

The new Assembly will then begin work on the next stage of the political process in Iraq, as set out in UN Security Council Resolution 1546: the drafting of a permanent Constitution for Iraq.

Many Iraqi political and religious leaders, including Ayatollah Sistani, have made clear their wish to include Sunni groups in this process. I welcome Prime Minister Allawi’s call earlier today for a “new national dialogue that guarantees that all Iraqis have a voice in the next government”. There are important safeguards for both the Sunni and Kurdish minorities in the Transitional Administrative Law, under whose terms the Constitution will need to be approved. The Constitution must not only receive an absolute majority of votes in a referendum, but in addition can be blocked by two-thirds of voters in any three of the country’s 18 provinces.

The United Kingdom will continue to offer every support to the political process in Iraq as set out by the United Nations, working with our international partners including through the EU. We will seek an early meeting of the Sharm-el-Sheik group of Iraq’s neighbours and G8 countries, to build on international support for Iraq. And we will continue to work for a central role for the United Nations in supporting the political process.

There have been deep divisions over Iraq in the last two years. But this election should unite us all. Yesterday the Iraqi people in their millions showed their wish to embrace freedom, and to shape the future destiny of their country. I know that the whole House and the country stand behind them as they pursue that historic endeavour.