BAGHDAD, Feb. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- An influential organization of Sunni clerics that had boycotted last Sunday's landmark elections on Wednesday termed the polls as illegitimate.

    "Whatever the results of these elections are and despite the claim of a high turnout, the elections lack legitimacy because a large segment of different Iraqi sects boycotted them," said Mohammed Fadhi, spokesman of the Muslim Scholars Association.

    Moreover, "the new government that will emerge from the elections will be an illegal one," he stressed.

    Sunday's voting witnessed an unexpected enthusiasm to participate, especially in the Kurdish region in the north and theShiite populated provinces in central south, but the turnout in the Sunni area appeared much lower.

    Officials told Xinhua that the turnout in Salahaldin province, one of four volatile governorates where elections had been deemed as impossible, would be no more than 27 percent.

    In Fallujah, stormed by US and Iraqi forces last November, onlyaround 1,000 people out of over 250,000 residents showed up at polling centers.

    Besides, polling stations in Ramadi and some distant cities in Anbar province virtually received no voters on the election day.

    In an effort to patch up differences over the political process,the interim Iraqi government has offered a reconciliatory dialogueamong all the groups, including the Iraqi Islamic Party, the biggest Sunni political party.

    But the Muslim Scholars Association, which had associated with some 60 parties to boycott the elections, has been marginalized.

    At Wednesday's press conference, the first by the association after the voting, Fadhi said the body would "respect the decision of all Iraqis who had participated in the voting." Enditem