The Iraqi prime minister's coalition has retaken the lead from his secular challenger in a preliminary tally of votes in Iraq's parliamentary elections, the country's election commission said Wednesday. Partial results based on 83 percent of the ballots from the March 7 voting gave Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki's group an edge over his rival in what has been a very tight race. Maliki's State of Law now has about 40,000 more votes than the Iraqiya bloc, led by former prime minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite, who has had a strong showing among the country's disaffected Sunnis, in the north and west of the country. The premier received a boost with the new results coming from the southern Shiite heartland provinces of Basra, Karbala and Dhi Qar. On Tuesday, Allawi led the prime minister with 9,000 votes. However, in the crucial province-by-province tally, Maliki has been ahead throughout the race, winning in seven out of Iraq's 18 provinces to Allawi's lead in five. The parliamentary elections - Iraq's second only for a full-term parliament since the 2003 US invasion – will determine who gets to form the next government that will rule as US troops leave. But the vote counting has a long process, with results being portioned out piecemeal by election officials and almost immediately subject to fraud accusations. In the all-important Baghdad, both Maliki and Allawi picked up about 20,000 new votes, the latest results showed. It was another indication of the narrowness of the race. Parliament seats are apportioned mainly by how well coalitions do in the provinces, not according to overall vote. The new vote results didn't change much for the religious Shiite Iraqi National Alliance and the main Kurdish coalition, which lead in three provinces each. Allawi's Sunni support is likely due to his non-sectarian stance and repeated condemnations of the influence of Iraq's powerful Shiite neighbor, Iran.
