Sunday, February 13, 2005

The Shiite alliance backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani received the most votes of any party but failed to win a majority, election officials said today. Of about 8.46 million votes cast in the January 30 election, the powerful cleric's United Iraq Alliance received 4.08 million, the combined Kurdish parties 2.17 million and the Iraqi list of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi 1.17 million. (CNN)