AFP
BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki took a slender lead over his rivals Friday, preliminary results from the country’s election showed, as oppositions blocs alleged blatant fraud.
Maliki faces a strong challenge from ex-premier Iyad Allawi, whose secular Iraqiya bloc has emerged as the strongest challenger to the incumbent’s hopes of retaining his post.
Early results released on Friday from the mainly Shiite southern provinces of Maysan and Muthanna, which border Iran and Saudi Arabia respectively, put Maliki in pole position.
In Muthanna, Maliki’s State of Law Alliance was in the lead, followed by the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), a bloc led by religious Shiite groups. Iraqiya was in fourth.
And in Maysan, the INA was ahead, followed by State of Law and Iraqiya.
Initial figures from four of Iraq’s 18 provinces released on Thursday were split between the two rival contenders for the top job.
Preliminary figures for Najaf, Babil, Diyala and Salaheddin put State of Law ahead in the first two provinces, while Iraqiya was in front in the latter pair.
Both blocs claimed to have made a strong showing nationwide, based on their own internal calculations, with Iraqiya claiming to have won 90 seats in the 325-member parliament, while State of Law said it had taken around 100.
In Arbil province in the autonomous region of Kurdistan, the Kurdistania alliance, made up of the region’s two long-dominant parties, was in the lead.
The results released thus far represent less than a third of ballots cast.
Complete results are expected on March 18 and the final ones — after any appeals are dealt with — 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.
Iraqiya has alleged that fraud took place during Sunday’s polls in favour of State of Law, a charge dismissed by the latter bloc as exaggerated.
“There has been clear and flagrant fraud,” charged Intisar Allawi, a senior Iraqiya candidate and relative of the former prime minister.
She said Iraqiya’s own election observers had found ballot papers in garbage dumps in the northern disputed province of Kirkuk.
But Hassan Sinaid, a senior State of Law candidate, described those claims as “exaggerated”.
“This is propaganda from certain lists. The elections took place in a good atmosphere and the results reflect the views of the Iraqi people,” he said.
Qassim al-Abboudi, a senior IHEC official, added, referring to Iraqiya, that “one political entity ... rushed to publish incorrect facts”.
Meanwhile, the election commission said the claims of fraud were either politically motivated or fuelled by a misunderstanding of the counting procedures.
But it would still investigate any complaints it received, an official said.
“We are used to receiving these accusations from political blocs because either they do not know our procedures or they have not had good results in the election,” said Iyad al-Kinaani.
“That is why they are talking about fraud”.
A Western diplomat agreed with Kinaani’s account, noting that “the complexity of the election explains the accusations made by different parties”.
“We are relatively relaxed because there have been fewer complaints than the last election (in 2005) and fewer ballot boxes have been put in quarantine,” the diplomat said, on condition of anonymity.
“There is no reason to get worried at this time”.
According to Saad Rawi, another election official, IHEC had so far received 2,250 complaints, including 470 related to out-of-country voting — Iraqis living overseas were able to cast their ballots in 16 countries.
General Ray Odierno, the commander of US forces in Iraq, said on Tuesday he had been in close touch with Iraqi authorities about ensuring security after the country’s second parliamentary election since the 2003 US-led invasion.
Security officials have expressed concern that a long period of coalition building could give insurgent groups and Al-Qaeda an opportunity to destabilise Iraq by carrying out attacks.
Khaleej Times
