Iraqi prime minister Nuri al-Maliki retained his narrow lead over secularist challenger Iyad Allawi today as Iraq neared a final preliminary count of votes cast in a March 7th parliamentary election.
The tight race between the Shia prime minister and Mr Allawi, who was dominating largely Sunni provinces, was expected to lead to weeks or months of tense negotiations to form a new government as Iraq emerges from years of sectarian conflict.
The strong showing by Mr Allawi among Sunnis marginalised by the rise of Iraq's Shia majority after the 2003 US invasion promised to be a key factor in the coming talks and in Iraq's security as US forces prepared to pull out by the end of 2011.
With nearly 90 per cent of the vote tallied, Mr Maliki's State of Law coalition was about 40,000 votes ahead of Iraqiya, the cross-sectarian bloc headed by Mr Allawi, who served as prime minister in 2004 and 2005.
Mr Maliki's group was ahead in seven provinces compared to five for Iraqiya, and three each for the next two challengers, the Shia Iraqi National Alliance (INA) and the bloc representing the two most powerful parties from Iraq's Kurdish north.
The latest vote count was made public 11 days after the election, a delay that ratcheted up tensions and contributed to allegations of vote manipulation. Mr Maliki's party filed a formal complaint this week, following similar charges from Iraqiya and INA.
The latest tally from Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) included 70 per cent of ballots cast in the "special voting" period for soldiers, police officers, detainees and the sick and disabled held before the March 7th election, and some votes cast by Iraqis abroad.
"We are hoping to finish tomorrow from the special and abroad voting and the IHEC will be announcing the results in the coming few days, God willing," commission member Qasim al-Aboudi said.
Official results are not expected for weeks.
Mr Maliki retained his leads in two of the largest electoral prizes, the capital, Baghdad, where Mr Allawi's Iraqiya was running second, and the southern oil hub of Basra, where INA was in second place and Iraqiya was a distant third.
Mr Allawi was dominating Nineveh province, which held the second largest number of seats in the next parliament, and maintained a lead by the narrowest of margins in the disputed northern oil region of Kirkuk over a bloc of Kurdish parties that want to fold Kirkuk into their semi-autonomous enclave.
Reuters