Marginalised Sunnis hold key

Sunnis, poorly represented in the 275-seat assembly, led Pachachi to say community was "disenfranchised".

Iraq's Sunni Arab minority will be almost absent from the new national assembly, leaving the ousted former elite in dire need of unity while remaining key to the country's democratic and peaceful future.

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Iraq's Sunnis will be poorly represented in the 275-seat assembly, according to results announced on Sunday, leading Sunni elder statesman Adnan Pachachi to say the community was "disenfranchised".

The Iraqiyun list of President Ghazi al-Yawar is the largest single Sunni force in parliament with only five seats, while another Sunni party obtained one seat and a handful of Sunnis could also enter the assembly under the banner of the winning Shiite and Kurdish coalitions.

Yet victorious Shiite parties immediately extended a hand to Sunni leaders, for the sake of preserving Iraq's unity and because Sunnis could yet veto the permanent constitution due to be drawn up in coming months.

The draft constitution will be put to a referendum in August, but if three provinces reject it by two-thirds, then the whole process will have to begin again.

Sunni leaders could easily muster enough 'no' voices to thwart the process. The community accounts for around 20 per cent of Iraq's estimated 27-million-strong population, while their influence has dwindled steadily since the March 2003 US-led invasion.