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| Iraq |
| Iraq PM in contest with ex-premier for poll lead |
| 2010-03-12 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was in a tight contest to keep his job as he vied with ex-premier Iyad Allawi, initial election results from four of the country's 18 provinces showed Thursday. Four days after the election, Maliki and Allawi, both Shiite, have emerged nationally as the main candidates for the post of prime minister, with their blocs appearing to have fared best in Sunday's polls. The preliminary figures, which were announced once 30 percent of votes had been counted in the southern provinces of Najaf and Babil, put Maliki's State of Law Alliance first and the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), a coalition led by Shiite religious groups, in second place. Allawi's secular Iraqiya alliance was in third place. State of Law Alliance The State of Law Alliance held a lead of around 7,000 votes in Najaf and of 14,000 in Babil, the figures showed. An election official later added that Iraqiya was in the lead in Diyala and Salaheddin, two majority Sunni provinces north of Baghdad, with 17 percent of votes counted. "Allawi is in the lead in Diyala and Salaheddin," Iyad al-Kinaani, an official in Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said. In the Iraqi autonomous region of Kurdistan, meanwhile, Kinaani said the Kurdistania alliance, made up of the region's two long-dominant parties, was in the lead in Arbil province with 27 percent of votes counted. Kurdistania is made up of regional president Massud Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. In second place was the opposition Goran bloc ("Change" in Kurdish), which surprised observers by snaring nearly a quarter of the vote in Kurdish regional elections last year. Complete results are expected to be announced on March 18 and the final ones -- after any appeals are dealt with -- will come at the end of the month. Analysts have predicted protracted coalition building, as no single grouping is expected to win the 163 seats necessary to form a government on its own. Several blocs called on Thursday for individual polling station tally sheets to be published online, expressing concerns the nationwide vote would not be in line with the total from individual stations. |
| Posted by:Fred |