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Numbers being reported by most wire services:

• UIA, the main Shiite list: 47.6 per cent
• PUK/KDP Kurdish coalition: 25.4 per cent
• Allawi’s list: 13.6 per cent.

Reuters:

Overall turnout was 8.55 million votes, which was 58 percent of those registered to vote. The Shi’ite United Iraqi Alliance won 4.075 million votes, the Kurds won 2.175 million and Allawi’s list won 1.168 million, according to the tally released by the Electoral Commission on Sunday.

MSNBC reports:

Officials said that only 3,775 valid votes were cast in the insurgency-plagued Sunni province of Anbar.

That means the minority that dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein will have few seats in the 275-member assembly that will be formed by the election — and little political influence.

Which underestimates the political influence of bombs and guns, doesn’t it?

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UPDATE: AP reports:

The United Iraqi Alliance (Shiite alliance backed by Shiite Muslim clergy): 4,075,295

The Kurdistan Alliance (coalition of two main Kurdish factions): 2,175,551

The Iraqi List (headed by interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi): 1,168,943

Iraqis (headed by interim Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawer): 150,680

The Turkomen Iraqi Front (represents the countries ethnic Turks): 93,480

National Independent Elites and Cadres Party: 69,938

The Communist Party: 69,920

The Islamic Kurdish Society: 60,592

The Islamic Labor Movement in Iraq: 43,205

The National Democratic Alliance: 36,795

National Rafidain List (Assyrian Christians): 36,255

The Reconciliation and Liberation Entity: 30,796

Iraqi Islamic Party (main Sunni group headed by Mohsen Abdel-Hamid): 21,342

Assembly of Independent Democrats (headed by Sunni elder statesman Adnan Pachachi): 12,728

National Democratic Party (headed by Naseer Kamel al-Chaderchi, Sunni lawyer and member of the former Iraqi Governing Council): 1,603

Total votes: 8,550,571

Invalid votes: 94,305

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Source: Iraq’s election commission.

Senators Feinstein and Boxer ‘Disappointed’ that Final BRAC Criteria Do Not Reflect California Legislators’ Concerns

“The DoD’s base closure criteria are out of touch with reality and threaten the military readiness of the country,” Senator Boxer said. “The DoD does not rule out the mothballing of military bases which is a waste of military assets and could cause huge economic downturns; the DoD does not take into account the prior four rounds of base closures that disproportionately affected certain regions and they pay no attention to the surrounding intellectual infrastructure that is so necessary to our national security. I will work with my California colleagues at the state and federal level to fight for our state’s critical military installations.”

Well, war has broken out yet again in Mosul, but never mind all that because finally, two weeks after the “elections” we are promised results, allegedly by tomorrow morning. The suspense is a killer, but by tomorrow, we might know by what margin Ayatollah Sistani has won control of Iraq! The indispensable and indefatigable lenin has a roundup of Iraqi election news that really sets the tone for the big news tomorrow.

We’re told that after the results are announced, there will be three days for lodging complaints, which should be an interesting three days, considering the protests disenfranchised Iraqis have held this week.

Check out this excellent website devoted to international arms control (Not gun control).

“Waging war isn’t about fun and games. Or is it? A visit to one of the world’s biggest conventions for military training technology reveals that today’s armed forces are taking cues from video games, theme parks and Hollywood.”

“Now, you can also use this to enhance the experience,” the VirTra rep continues, fastening a thick, black device around his waist. The “threat-fire belt,” he explains, issues an electric shock to the trainee if he or she is hit by the imaginary bullet of a virtual assailant, who might appear anywhere on the semicircular screen. “If you get hit in the back, trust me, you’ll remember it. This one will bring you to your knees. The whole idea is to fight through the pain, and keep on going, just the way that you’ve been trained.”

Saturday, between 4 and 6PM ET, Scott Horton will be interviewing Carl Webb, who’s heroically protesting the US government’s attempts to send him back to Iraq through the so-called “Stop Loss Program” and Michael Scheuer, former CIA analyst and author of “Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror.”
Listen live on the Republic Broadcasting Network.