Kurds rejoice with 2nd place in historic elections

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BAGHDAD -- Kurds swept into second place in Iraq's historic elections, well-placed to secure a major parliamentary presence and top government job after decades of struggle against successive Sunni regimes.

Trailing the Shi'ite victors, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan won 25.7 percent of the vote -- likely to net them 75 seats in the 275-member national assembly when results are made final.

Led by Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, the heads of rival Kurdish parties, the Kurds united to savor electoral success on a joint ticket.

With the main Shi'ite coalition winning barely half the seats in the new assembly and Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's ticket coming in a distant third, no grouping is likely to muster the two-thirds needed to form a new government without Kurdish support.

Kurds turned out in force to celebrate in the disputed oil city of Kirkuk, where they won absolute victory in local polls, driving with Kurdistani flags blazing out of windows and shooting into the air.

Almost immediately, they reiterated demands for the presidency or premiership -- arguing that only they can serve as a bridge between Shi'ite religious parties and secular Arabs.

"We stick to our demand for obtaining one of these two posts: prime minister or president," said Azar Zinbani, an aide to Mr. Talabani who has demanded either job.

"We congratulate the Iraqi people, in spite of the problems encountered by some Kurds who wanted to vote, especially in the Mosul region. We are satisfied by the results, considering this was a first experience in democracy," he said.

Many expect the Kurds to use their new-found power to push their own agenda -- despite objections from within Iraq and neighboring countries with their own Kurdish minorities.

At the top of the list is control of Kirkuk, which Saddam Hussein resettled with tens of thousands of Arabs in a bid to deny the Kurds the area's oil wealth. The Kurdish Alliance won a landslide 59 percent of the local vote there.

"The Kurds will form an alliance with the party that will recognize a federal Kurdistan, support the Kurds on the issue of Kirkuk and Arabized regions, and back Kurdish demands to have a fair share of Iraqi resources ... including oil," said alliance official Nirjivan Barzani.

Kurdish leaders want Kirkuk to be the seat of their regional government, but Turkmen and Arab parties have cried foul, saying Kurds from elsewhere flooded into the city on election day to inflate the community's vote.

The Kurds also will want to enshrine their demands in the new constitution that the assembly will be tasked with drafting.

The two Kurdish parties have long insisted they are not seeking independence, just autonomy within a genuinely federal Iraq.

But their declarations have not satisfied Iraq's neighbors, who fear control of Kirkuk's oil wealth will tempt the Kurds to break away.

Turkey in particular has expressed strong concern over Kurdish ambitions and secured U.S. promises that there will be no redrawing of Iraq's borders.