Iraqi PM in coalition discussions with parties

PARTIAL RESULTS in Iraq’s March 7th parliamentary election released yesterday showed the State of Law alliance headed by prime minister Nouri al-Maliki to be leading in Basra, an oil-rich province in the south of the country.

This gives him a substantial edge in six of 18 provinces, including Baghdad, the prize, with 70 seats in the 325-member assembly. A moderate Shia fundamentalist who tried to appeal to all communities, Mr Maliki has opened coalition negotiations with other factions.

The secular Iraqiya list of Mr Maliki’s chief rival, Iyad Allawi, is ahead in Anbar, Iraq’s largest province, and three other provinces, and is third in Baghdad.

The Shia fundamentalist coalition, the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), composed of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) and the movement loyal to Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, is leading in two provinces and is second in Baghdad by a few thousand votes.

The overwhelming majority of INA votes have, so far, been for candidates fielded by Mr Sadr, a critic of Iran’s interference in Iraq’s affairs whose followers fought the US occupation.

If this trend holds, the main loser in this election would seem to be the SIIC, a party established in 1980 by exiles living in Tehran and which still enjoys close ties with Iran. The SIIC was considered the strongest Shia parliamentary faction emerging from the 2005 election.

Another group which appears to have been seriously diminished by this election is the Iraqi Islamic Party, formerly the largest Sunni party.

The bloc dominated by the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) is, as expected, leading in the Kurdish majority provinces of Irbil and Dohuk, long ruled by the KDP. But results have not yet been released for Suleimaniya, the third Kurdish majority province, where the formerly dominant PUK was seriously challenged by the Goran (“Change“) movement.

Although full results were to be announced on Thursday, election commission officials said they may not be ready until the end of the month.