It is this Arab Sunni hegemony that has been dealt a major blow in Sunday's elections.

The end of Sunni hegemony
SHLOMO AVINERI/Jerusalem Post Original Article

From its very establishment as a modern state by the British in the 1920s, Iraq has been ruled by its Sunni Arab minority, never numbering more than 20 percent of the population. Saddam Hussein's bloody autocracy had been only the most brutal of these Sunni-minority regimes, which over the decades were steadfastly opposed by other religious streams and ethnic groups. Hence there were numerous outbreaks of insurrections by the Shi'ite Arab majority, by the Kurds, and even by the small Christian Assyrian community.