PARTIAL results in Iraq's election released yesterday showed a tight contest between the prime minister, who had the lead in two provinces in the mainly Shiite south, and a secular challenger who appeared to be drawing on Sunni support north of Baghdad.
The early tallies from five of the 18 provinces were a setback to hard-line religious Shiite political leaders who have close ties to Iran. But results for the big prize – Baghdad – had yet to be released.
Prime minister Nouri al-Maliki's bloc was
ahead, with over a third of the votes counted, in the mainly Shiite provinces of Babil and Najaf where his rival Shiite religious coalition had hoped to make gains. The Iraqiya list, led by former prime minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shia, took the lead in the former Sunni insurgent strongholds of Diyala and Salahuddin.
Results from a fifth province, Irbil, were also released, showing the Kurdish Alliance, which joins the two main Kurdish parties, beating out the upstart Kurdish party, Gorran.
At stake is the right to guide Iraq's shaky stability as US troops prepare to go home.
The partial results from the Independent High Electoral Commission were released in a chaotic monitoring room in Baghdad and tallies from the rest of the nation were likely to be released over the coming days.
No bloc was expected to gain an outright majority, meaning those who do well will have to negotiate alliances and choose a prime minister. In an effort to cast himself as an inclusive leader for all Iraqis, Mr Maliki left the main Shiite coalition last year to create the State of Law alliance, which includes some Sunni groups.
In Babil province, Mr Maliki's political bloc won about 42 per cent of the estimated 160,870 votes that have been counted so far, according to the data released by the election commission. In neighbouring Najaf province, his win was even stronger – about 47 per cent of the 116,600 votes.
"These results were expected and it reflects the size of support with our list," said State of Law candidate Sadiq al-Laban in Najaf. "We extend our hands to any bloc that wants to work for a better Iraq."
But Mr Maliki appeared to be lagging far behind Mr Allawi's list in the central provinces of Salahuddin, which is mostly Sunni, and Diyala, which has a mixed population of Sunnis, Shias and Turkomen.
With only 17 per cent of the ballots counted – far below the 30 per cent threshold that election officials had said would be the standard for releasing results – Iraqiya had about 55 per cent of the vote in Diyala and about 60 per cent in Salahuddin.
At the election headquarters in Baghdad, scores of journalists jostled for a view of the vote counts as they were posted on big-screen TVs. Election officials appeared overwhelmed by the task of counting and reporting the vote, and seemed to have underestimated how long it would take.
Election officials said they had received about 1,000 complaints about the election process so far, although gave no indication as to what the complaints were about.
The Iraqi National Alliance, which is the top Shiite religious coalition, came in second in both southern provinces. The INA is made up of two main parties – the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and the political party led by anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
A win in Babil and Najaf provinces would represent an improvement for Mr Maliki's coalition over last year's provincial election.
