Mick Hartley

This is worth at least some celebration:

Nouri al-Maliki, Iraq’s Prime Minister, savoured a stunning election victory last night, as improved security drew voters to his coalition and away from the sectarian division offered by hardline religious parties.

The victory in provincial elections will encourage him to run for a second term in office in the approaching general election, less than a year after he was derided in the West for his ambitious military crackdown on militants.

A coalition headed by Mr al-Maliki had landslide wins in Baghdad and Basra, the country’s two most important provinces. His State of Law coalition also came out on top in seven other predominately Shia provinces in southern Iraq, beating the rival Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (ISCI) in a triumph for secular politics over religious groups.

And the BBC:

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 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.

The ballots before 2003 were of course noticeably peaceful. Saddam usually got about 99% of the vote.