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From the NewsMax.com Staff
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Sunday, Jan. 30, 2005 10:04 a.m. EST
Jennings: Election 'Illegitimate' for Sunnis
Reacting to reports that Iraqi election turnout was far higher than predicted, with voters dancing in the streets in celebration of their newfound democracy, ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings insisted that for Iraq's Sunni population, the vote was still "illegitimate."
"I don't want to seem unnecessarily skeptical," Jennings told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on ABC's "This Week." "But in fact the Iraqis seemed to turn out in some places and not turn out in others."
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Though ecstatic Iraqi elections officials said Sunday that turnout nationwide was 72 percent - and may top 90 percent in Shiite areas - Jennings wasn't satisfied.
"Just today one of the leading Sunni secular leaders said he was worried about the degree of the turnout," he told Dr. Rice. "And it is similarly true that many Sunnis are not turning out because they think this is an illegitimate election in the presence of a U.S. occupation."
Dr. Rice said that if Sunni turnout was depressed, it was largely because of threats of violence from Iraqi terrorists, and not because of American involvment.
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