Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition regained the lead today after electoral officials released a new preliminary count of 95 per cent of the vote from the parliamentary election.
Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition regained the lead today after electoral officials released a new preliminary count of 95 per cent of the vote from the parliamentary election.
Mr Maliki's mainly Shia State of Law bloc led by about 188,000 votes nationwide over secularist challenger Iyad Allawi and his Iraqiya coalition, according to the latest count from the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC).
Elections officials said they would announce a preliminary 100 per cent count on Friday.
Earlier, the IHEC rejected a call last night by Mr Maliki for a nationwide recount of votes. He had warned the country could return to violence if the demand was not met.
Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, also issued a statement today asking the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) for a recount in some provinces.
The tight race portends weeks or months of difficult negotiations ahead to form a new government, raising the prospect of a political vacuum that could set back Iraq's fragile security gains.
Iraq's divided vote is a reminder of the country's precarious democracy as it emerges from the shadow of war and years of sectarian slaughter that followed the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. Violence fell sharply over the past two years but a tenacious insurgency keeps Iraq under siege as US troops prepare to withdraw by 2012.
The vote counting process has been dogged by allegations of fraud and irregularities.
Supporters of the State of Law coalition complained of vote fraud last week and asked for a recount in Baghdad after initial results showed their candidate trailing the Iraqiya bloc led by Mr Allawi, a Shia former prime minister with wide support among minority Sunnis.
The IHEC had said the count was fair and included multiple checks against fraud.
The two men have been locked in a neck-and-neck race and the lead in the popular vote has changed hands several times. Seats in the 325-member parliament will be allocated on the basis of each coalition's results in each of the 18 provinces, not by the national vote count.
Mr Maliki leads in seven provinces in central and southern Iraq, six of them mainly Shia.
Mr Allawi, who has tried to model himself as a non-sectarian outsider, swept western and northern areas that are home to large numbers of Sunni Arabs. He also holds a narrow lead over the powerful Kurdish ruling party in Kirkuk, the disputed city that is Iraq's northern oil hub.
Mr Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) is one of two groups that have dominated Kurdish politics for decades. The alliance of the two leads in three provinces.
Reuters