The minority Sunni community will be "full partners" in Iraq's new administration, the Shia candidate for the country's premiership pledged today.
Mr Ahmed Chalabi, of the United Iraqi Alliance - the Shia religious alliance which polled the majority of the seats in the January 30th poll - said he wanted all Iraqis represented in the new National Assembly.
"We have no desire to exclude the Sunni community," he said. "On the contrary, we want them to be full partners in the drafting of the constitution because the constitution is a document that will unite Iraq and it will not be drafted on the basis of a sectarian majority or an ethnic majority."
Speaking on the BBC Radio 4 Todayprogramme today, a day after official results were announced, he added: "It [the constitution] will have to be done by all the communities of Iraq working together because it is the document that will put an end to sectarianism in Iraq."
Mr Ahmed Chalabi, of the United Iraqi Alliance
The alliance, led by the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, won more than 48 per cent of the 8.5 million votes cast. An alliance of Kurdish parties was in second place with around 26 per cent, while the party of interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi was third on 14 per cent.
There is now a three-day period for complaints about the election results to be lodged. If none are upheld, they become official. The Iraqi election commission said turnout was about 58 per cent, but much of the Sunni minority did not take part.
Mr Chalabi continued: "People keep referring to the Americans, the coalition, you must understand that, under (UN) Resolution 1646, Iraq is a fully sovereign state.
"Now there is an Assembly which has been elected by the Iraqi people and that makes it completely legitimate as far as Iraqis are concerned, and the new assembly will act as an elected assembly of a sovereign state."
He added: "None of the candidates, the parties, have anywhere near a majority and each one of them will have to build a coalition in order to win. . . . But we are a team. We work together and whoever wins, the other people will work with him."
A 275-member National Assembly that must agree on a president and two vice-presidents by a two-thirds majority. Those three officials will then agree on a prime minister and cabinet, and their choices must be approved by a majority in the assembly. The Assembly's first job is to draw up a constitution for Iraq.
Sunni Arab turnout was low in the elections. Only 2 per cent of eligible voters in the Sunni-dominated Anbar province cast ballots, and only 29 per cent in the mainly Sunni Salahadin province.
Sunnis make up about 20 per cent of Iraq's 27 million people. The main Sunni Arab group in the assembly will probably be a bloc led by President Ghazi al-Yawar, although it is set to have only around five seats.
A secular party led by Sunni elder statesmen Adnan Pachachi looked unlikely to win any seats. "The image of Iraq that these results suggest is not real. That is obvious," Mr Pachachi told said.