Baghdad, March 27: 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 won 91 seats in the 325-member Council of Representatives, compared to the 89 won by the State of Law Alliance led by Maliki, a fellow Shiite, election officials said.
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 Shi’ite grouping whose leaders have close ties to neighboring Iran, came third with 70 seats.
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.
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.
Underscoring the tensions in Iraq, two bombs killed at least 42 people and wounded 65 others in the town of Khalis, in Iraq’s northern Diyala province, shortly before the results were announced.
—Agencies