Early Poll Results Show Iraqi PM in Tight Race
VOA News 12 March 2010
Partial results from Iraq's parliamentary elections show Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki's coalition in a tight race with a faction led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.
The results show Mr. Maliki's Shi'ite-led State of Law coalition ahead in three southern, predominately Shi'ite, provinces. That gives him a slim overall lead over Mr. Allawi's Iraqiya secular faction, which is ahead in two provinces north of Baghdad.
On Friday, elections officials announced Mr. Maliki's State of Law coalition was ahead in Muthanna. The elections commission also announced the mostly Shi'ite Iraqi National Alliance had pulled ahead in Maysan, a province near the country's border with Iran.
The only other partial results that have been made public are from the northern province of Irbil. Elections officials announced Thursday the Kurdish Alliance was ahead in the province, which is part of the autonomous Kurdistan region.
The preliminary results so far only include seven out of 18 provinces. The count for the vote-rich capital, Baghdad has not yet been reported.
The Iraqiya coalition and the Shi'ite Iraqi National Alliance (INA) on Thursday both alleged numerous allegations of fraud and called for greater transparency in the vote counting process.
Iraqiya claims in some instances, ballots were found in garbage dumps. The party claims the alleged-vote rigging took place to bolster results for Prime Minister Maliki's coalition.
British lawmaker and European Parliament member Straun Stevenson also says ballots were falsified.
The elections commission downplayed reports of fraud.
No single faction is expected to win an outright majority, and building a coalition to form a new government could take months.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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