Election officials in Baghdad said 63 percent, or 9.8 million of Iraq’s 15.5 million registered voters, cast ballots. The highest turnout, 90 percent, was in the northern Kurdish province of Irbil. The lowest was in Anbar province, a center of U.S. military operations against forces loyal to the former Baath Party regime of Saddam Hussein, whose trial opened recently.

In praising the result, U.S. ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad, noted that Sunnis participated in substantially larger numbers in the constitutional vote as compared to the National Assembly election in January. Most Sunni politicians boycotted that vote. Many among them now consider that boycott a disastrous error. The largely Sunni-populated province of Salahuddin, which includes Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, had reportedly the second highest turnout for the referendum—88 percent.

Instead of a boycott, wealthy Sunni politicians, many of whom made up the backbone of support for the Hussein regime and have financed armed attacks against U.S. and Iraqi troops, campaigned to defeat the referendum. The constitution would have failed if people in three provinces voted against it by a two-thirds majority. That happened in only two provinces—Salahuddin with 82 percent voting no and Anbar with 97 percent voting against.

The day after government officials announced the constitution had been approved, three parties with support among Sunnis announced they will field electoral blocs in elections for a full-term National Assembly scheduled for December 15.

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