Iraq calm after election results

[BennyT]

Iraq remains peaceful following the announcement of provincial election results, which show strong support for Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's party.
There had been fears of violence when the preliminary results of Saturday's vote came out on Thursday.
The ballot in 14 of the 18 provinces was the most peaceful in Iraq since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Friday for talks with leaders.
The United Nations played a key role in helping the Iraqis prepare and run the elections - seen as a test of stability before a general election, due later this year.
The BBC's Jim Muir, in Baghdad, says that like everyone else, the UN is heaving a huge sigh of relief that both the polling day itself and the announcement of the results passed off with virtually no violence at all.

[BennyT]

Celebratory mood
Election commission preliminary results announced on Thursday showed Mr Maliki's State of Law coalition had made spectacular gains in southern Muslim Shia areas.
The coalition won 38% of votes in the capital Baghdad and 37% in Iraq's second city Basra - curbing the previous dominance of rival Shia parties.

Meanwhile, the once-dominant Sunni Arabs regained political power in other parts of the country - having boycotted the 2005 election.
There were fears of violence in the mainly Sunni flashpoint province of al-Anbar, where tribal leaders had threatened to take up arms over the result.
In the event, they came in just half a percentage point behind another Sunni party to which they are allied.
Ban Ki-Moon was expected to hold talks with Mr Maliki as well as Iraqi President Jalal Talabani while in Baghdad.
He will "reiterate the UN's commitment to the country," and "above all congratulate the Iraqi people on the success of largely violence-free elections," UN spokesman Said Arikat told the AFP news agency.
The election was an extraordinary achievement in a country that has been wracked by violence for the last nearly six years, our correspondent says.
Healthy and peaceful political competition, and change through the ballot box, have become the name of the game, he adds.
Just over half of Iraqis voted in Saturday's election, lower than some had predicted.
Final results are not expected to be known for weeks.