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Secular Candidate Takes Lead in Iraqi Election

   VOA News 16 March 2010
   Former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi , 07 Mar 2010

Photo: AP

   Former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi , 07 Mar 2010

   Preliminary   results  from  Iraq's  parliamentary  elections  show  a
   coalition led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has pulled ahead in
   the vote count.
   Iraqi  officials  said  Tuesday  the  Iraqiya faction of Mr. Allawi, a
   secular  Sh'ite,  has  about  9,000  more  votes than the coalition of
   Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
   About  80 percent of the votes have been counted.
   Early results also show that Mr. Maliki's State of Law coalition still
   leads  in seven of Iraq's 18 provinces, including Baghdad and southern
   provinces such as Basra, where many parliamentary seats are allocated.
   Mr. Allawi is ahead in five provinces.
   The  main  Kurdish  coalition, the Kurdistan Alliance, is ahead in the
   three provinces in the Kurdistan region.
   No  faction  is  expected to win an outright majority, which means the
   leading parties will likely have to build a coalition government.
   Officials say they hope to have final results from all 18 provinces by
   the end of the month.
   Meanwhile,  police say eight people died in two car bombings in a town
   about 60 kilometers south of Baghdad.  The two blasts hit minibuses on
   the main street of Mussayab.
   Officials say 11 people were wounded in the blasts.


   Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

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