The signs remain tentative, and even advocates of such change suggest much will depend on the posture the new government takes toward the insurgency and the removal of former Ba'ath Party officials from state institutions. But in statements and interviews, some Sunni leaders said the sectarian tension that surged ahead of the vote had forced them to rethink their stance.

The national election was for seats in a 275-member transitional parliament, which will appoint the government and draft the constitution this year. Parliament likely will be dominated by members of the country's Shiite Muslim majority and by ethnic Kurdish Sunnis from northern Iraq, leaving Sunni Muslim and others who oppose the presence of foreign troops in Iraq with little representation.

The Japan Times Weekly: Feb. 12, 2005
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