Allawi's coalition tops Iraq's parliamentary election

Allawi's coalition tops Iraq's parliamentary election

Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi is all smiles as the full election results released Friday for Iraq's parliament showed his party winning the most seats. (AP)


By AGENCIES

BAGHDAD: Secularist challenger Iyad Allawi's coalition won the most seats in Iraq's parliamentary election with Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki running a close second, according to preliminary results released on Friday.

Allawi's cross-sectarian Iraqiya coalition won 91 seats to 89 seats for Al-Maliki's State of Law bloc.

Al-Maliki said he did not accept the results released on Friday because they were "not final."

"The election results are not final," Al-Maliki told a press conference in Baghdad. "Of course we don't accept this result because it is preliminary."

The tight race and Allawi's strong support in Sunni-dominated northern provinces raised the prospect of long and potentially divisive talks on forming a new government.

The Iraqi National Alliance, a Shiite grouping whose leaders have close ties to neighboring Iran, came third with 70 seats and Kurdistania, comprised of the autonomous Kurdish region's two long-dominant blocs, won 43 seats, according to the full preliminary results released by the Independent High Electoral Commission, 19 days after the parliamentary election.

The US ambassador to Baghdad and the top American military commander in Iraq, in a joint statement, gave their blessing to the outcome. "We support the findings of international and independent Iraqi observers, who ... have found that there is no evidence of widespread or serious fraud," said ambassador Christopher Hill and General Ray Odierno.

Allawi's victory in the March 7 poll signals he will be given the first opportunity to form a government, which would require a coalition holding at least a majority of 163 seats. If he fails to do so within 30 days, Iraq's president, who himself is elected by Parliament, would choose the leader of another bloc to try to form a coalition government.

The top official for the United Nations in Iraq said the UN has determined Iraq's elections were credible and called on all sides to accept the results. The comments by Ad Melkert came hours after a twin bombing near a restaurant in a city north of Baghdad killed at least 40 people.

The police spokesman for Diyala province, Capt. Ghalib Al-Karkhi, said dozens more were also injured in the blasts in the town of Khalis, some 80 km north of the capital. Another police official, Salah Mohammed, said one of the explosions was a car bomb and the other a suicide bomber.