A Shia Islamist bloc has won Iraq's first elections since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, in results marking the rise to power of the long-oppressed Shia majority but leaving the rebellious Sunni Arab minority with little representation, writes Jack Fairweather in Baghdad.
Iraq's Electoral Commission said the Shia list, called the United Iraqi Alliance, took just over 48 per cent of the vote.
The result deprives the Shia list of outright majority which some Shias had predicted, but gives them enough power to push for an Islamic agenda in the new assembly.
An alliance of Kurdish parties came in second with 25.7 per cent, while Interim Prime Minister Mr Ayad Allawi's secular list came third with just under 14 per cent, a low polling which may force him from office.
Few Sunni Arabs took part in the voting, leaving the community that once ruled Iraq under Saddam only a handful of seats in the new assembly, and minimal influence.
President George W. Bush yesterday congratulated the winners and voters for defying insurgents to cast ballots.
"I congratulate the Iraqi people for defying terrorist threats and setting their country on the path of democracy and freedom," Mr Bush said in a statement.
The low turnout is likely to bolster the insurgency which is being waged in Sunni areas by militants who want an end to the US-led occupation.
The commission said 8.55 million Iraqis, or 58 per cent of registered voters, cast their ballots in the January 30th poll, the first multi-party elections in half-a-century.
However, in the Sunni-dominated Anbar province, only 2 percent of eligible voters cast their ballot, and in Ninevah province, containing the flashpoint city of Mosul, only 17 per cent voted.
Most mainstream Sunni political parties withdrew their candidates before the election saying it would be impossible to hold a meaningful ballot given the high levels of violence.
Shia politicians have offered to include Sunni leaders in the drawing up of a new constitution - the main task of the 275-member assembly - but such assurances will do little to persuade Sunni Arabs they have a stake in running the country. In another sign of the dangers facing the new Iraqi government, Kurds in the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk were declared the winners of a provincial ballot - a result which will anger Arabs and Turkomen who also lay claim to the city.
The results announced yesterday will be provisional for a three-day period when complaints can be lodged, election officials said.
If none are upheld the results will become official, paving the way for the assembly to appoint by a two-thirds majority a president and two vice-presidents.
They will then in turn agree on a prime minister and cabinet, to be approved by the assembly.
With no bloc gaining outright dominance, there has already been intense bartering between political parties for key cabinet posts.
Mr Allawi will be hard-pressed to keep his job.The United Iraqi Alliance, backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the Shia spiritual leader, is insisting one of its candidates be appointed prime minister.
Current Finance Minister, Mr Adel Abdul Mahdi, and President Obrahim Jaafari, leading members of the list, are possible contenders.
Some Shia leaders have called for the Koran to be the basis of Iraq's new constitution.
For their part, Kurds want their candidate, the secular leader Mr Jalal Talabani, to be president.
The first challenge facing the new government will be to gain the support of Sunni Arabs in time for a referendum on the constitution, scheduled for later this year.
The government must also tackle the insurgency, which has shown no signs of weakening since the election two weeks ago.