Prominent Sunni leader Adnan Pachachi declared Sunday that he was "disappointed" with Sunday`s official ballot tally in Iraq, saying that low Sunni turnout across the country left that segment of the country`s population "disenfranchised." "We were disappointed, naturally, because of the very small, low turnout in many areas. It made it impossible for us to be represented on the national assembly," Pachachi, a former member of the Iraqi Governing Council, told CNN television. (AFP via TurkishPress.com) In a similar AFP story, low turnout by Iraqi Sunni voters was a concern, Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh told CNN television Sunday.

Charles Clover: Iraq has hosted no less than three momentous handovers of power by the US-led coalition since the end of the war in 2003, each accompanied by slightly higher expectations that a more sovereign and more legitimate Iraqi state could finally emerge to start mending the fractured society. The success of January's parliamentary elections, whose results were announced on Sunday, is likely to depend on the extent that the winners can share power, and create the climate for a political solution to the country's bloody insurgency. (Financial Times)

State Department praises Iraqi elections. (WTNH.com)

Under the "democracy spreading around the world" theme, some Saudi Arabia election news: 73.6% participation in the local elections in Riyadh (Arabic News), and Islamists win landmark Saudi elections (Reuters)