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Allawi Expected to Start Coalition-Building Talks in Iraq

   VOA News 27 March 2010
   Former  Iraqi  Prime  Minister  Ayad  Allawi  speaks  to  the press in
   Baghdad, 27 Mar 2010

Photo: AP

   Former  Iraqi  Prime  Minister  Ayad  Allawi  speaks  to  the press in
   Baghdad, 27 Mar 2010

   Iraq's  former  prime  minister  Ayad  Allawi  is  expected  to  start
   coalition-building  talks,  after  full preliminary results showed his
   secular alliance won the most seats in parliamentary balloting earlier
   this month.
   Mr. Allawi says his Iraqiya alliance is open to talks with all groups,
   and that "we will together bury political sectarianism."
   As  the  top  vote-getter,  Mr. Allawi will be given 30 days to try to
   form  the  next  Iraqi  government.   If he fails to do so, President
   Jalal  Talabani  will  choose the leader of another political bloc for
   the task.
   Iraq's  incumbent  Prime  Minister,  Nouri al-Maliki, says he will not
   accept  Friday's  tally,  which has his Shi'ite State of Law coalition
   winning  89  seats.   Mr. Allawi's Iraqiya alliance won just two more
   seats, with a total of 91 in Iraq's 325-seat parliament.
   Mr.  Maliki called for a manual recount to ensure the election results
   are    completely    transparent.    But   United   Nations   special
   representative  in  Iraq,  Ad  Melkert, said the March 7 parliamentary
   vote was credible, and he called on all parties to accept the results.
   Friday's   tally  also  showed  the  Shi'ite-majority  Iraqi  National
   Alliance  with  70  seats, followed by the main Kurdish coalition, the
   Kurdistan Alliance, with 43.
   U.S.  Ambassador  to  Iraq  Christopher Hill and the top U.S. military
   commander  in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, said in a release Friday they
   supported  election  observers  who  found  there  was  no evidence of
   widespread fraud.
   State  Department spokesman P.J. Crowley also called on all parties to
   accept  the  results  and  work  together  cooperatively to form a new
   government  in  a  timely manner.  He urged all sides to refrain from
   inflammatory rhetoric and intimidation.
   Shortly  before  the  results  were  announced  Friday, two explosions
   ripped  through  a  town  in Diyala province north of Baghdad, killing
   more than 42 people.

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

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