IRAQ'S prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, has scored a decisive victory over Shiite religious parties that used to dominate the country, preliminary election results showed last night.
The success of Mr Maliki's non-sectarian State of Law coalition in provincial polls in Baghdad and the Shiite south gives a leader once derided as weak a mandate for a strong central state, and crucial momentum ahead of national elections later this
year. It also marks a shift away from the overtly sectarian politics that have gripped Iraq since 2003.
"This shows that the Iraqi voter wants to hear nationalist speeches as well as religious speeches," Ali al-Dabbagh, a government spokesman, said. "The first priority for Iraqis is security. The prime minister achieved good security for Iraq. The Iraqi voter preferred to give his vote to the one who brought security."
Mr Maliki, himself a Shiite with Islamist roots, campaigned on a rigorously non-sectarian law-and-order platform, even as his opponents adopted overtly religious slogans and images.
Saturday's provincial election was the most peaceful in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, and has been hailed as a sign of progress by Washington as its 140,000 troops prepare to leave.
State of Law won by huge margins in the capital and the second-largest city, Basra, and scored smaller but substantial victories in seven of eight other Shiite provinces in the south.
The results showed secularist and independent parties also fared well, after being largely swamped by religious parties in the last election in 2005.
By contrast, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (ISCI) – until now the dominant party among Iraq's Shiite majority – failed to win a single province.
Although Iraq is now largely quieter than at any time since the US-led invasion in 2003, a suicide bomber in the north killed 15 people hours before the poll results were unveiled, a reminder that peace remains fragile.
Major-General David Perkins, of the US military, said: "It does make it clear there obviously are still elements here – al-Qaeda, other terrorists – that are trying to disrupt progress throughout Iraq because they see progress as the greatest threat."
Results released by the independent election commission showed Mr Maliki's State of Law bloc winning 38 per cent of votes in Baghdad and 37 per cent in Basra province, which accounts for most of Iraq's oil exports.
A group backed by the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr was second in Baghdad with only 9 per cent of the vote. In Basra, ISCI was second, with 11.6 per cent.
The results were closer in other Shiite provinces, and parties will be scrambling over the next few weeks to form coalitions in the regional councils that elect powerful governors.
Sunni Arab parties won in Iraq's most violent province, Nineveh in the north. Sunnis make up the majority there, but Kurds had run the government after many Arabs boycotted the vote in 2005. US and Iraqi commanders hope the Sunni return to power will ease violence.
In Anbar, once the heartland of the Sunni Arab insurgency, a secular party and tribal sheikhs edged out the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), which had run the province since 2005. The sheikhs, who run US-backed guard units known as "Awakening Councils" that helped drive out militants, had accused the IIP of fraud and vowed to take up arms if it won.
Mr Maliki, long seen as having little clout in the regional governments that run Iraq's towns and villages, relied on support from ISCI and Sadr to take power in 2006. But he won popular support last year on the strength of improvements in security.
From death sentence to state leadershipONCE viewed by Shiite Muslim partners as malleable, and by Washington as a sectarian leader unable to halt bloodshed, Iraq's prime minister has emerged as a nationalist credited with rescuing his country from civil war.
Nouri al-Maliki, little-known in Iraq before the US-led invasion in 2003 ousted Saddam Hussein, was a compromise pick to lead a wobbly coalition government in 2006.
Mr Maliki was a student when he became involved in the Dawa party, founded in the late 1950s with the goal of promoting the role of Islam in public life.
The party was driven underground after Saddam took power in 1979, and Mr Maliki was condemned to death during his years agitating against the president from exile, mainly in Iran and Syria.
Initially seen as a Shiite Islamist,
Mr Maliki changed in the eyes of many Iraqis when he took on Shiite militias in southern Iraq and Baghdad last spring with US military backing.
He has been strengthened by the sharp drop in violence across Iraq and by his tough line in demanding a firm withdrawal date from Washington for the 140,000 US troops who remain in the country.
