Iraq's election race tight as results delayed again (Reuters)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) –

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had a narrow lead over rival Shi'ites, partial results in Iraq's tight election race showed on Friday, but a secularist challenger remained far ahead in minority Sunni areas.

The race may remain too close to call until initial results are posted for all of Iraq's 18 provinces, including pivotal areas like Baghdad, the ethnically and religiously diverse capital city that is home to at least 6 million people.

Initial results released so far for six provinces show Maliki's State of Law bloc slightly ahead of the Iraqi National Alliance (INA), a coalition of powerful Shi'ite parties, with a gap of just 15,500 votes of 313,000 counted for the two groups.

In third place was former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's Iraqiya list, a cross-sectarian, secularist group that is well ahead in two provinces home to large numbers of minority Sunnis.

The picture following Iraq's March 7 parliamentary poll, a milestone seven years after Saddam Hussein's ouster, was further muddied by another delay by Iraqi electoral officials in giving complete initial results and by mounting accusations of fraud.

Officials at the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said more results may be released on Friday.

The confusing aftermath to the vote represents an inauspicious start to what will likely be lengthy, fractious talks to form a government, especially if the vote is as fragmented as early results suggest.

Violence may have receded, but it lurks under the surface in a country where sectarian wounds have not healed and major questions about land and oil remain unsettled.

Hamdiya al-Husseini, a top IHEC official, dismissed charges of serious fraud coming from Allawi's camp, including reports that ballots were discovered in the garbage and more than 200,000 soldiers' names were missing from voting rosters.

"The process of counting and sorting ballots is going well, with the presence of observers from political parties and under international supervision," Husseini said.

United Nations officials, who are advising IHEC, downplayed the reports of fraud.

SLOW GOING

A cleric close to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's highest Shi'ite authority, called for results to be announced quickly and in a way that would lay suspicions to rest.

"This could delay and confuse the start to the next parliament," Abdul-Mahdi al-Kerbalai said in a Friday sermon.

After Iraq's last parliamentary election in late 2005, sectarian violence exploded as politicians took months to settle on a government.

The coming period is crucial for the Obama administration, facing an escalating war in Afghanistan, as it plans to halve its troop force by September 1 and withdraw fully by end-2011.

Leading world energy firms will be watching closely to see what sort of government emerges to take over the multi-billion-dollar oil contracts they have signed with Iraq.

Even if Maliki beats out Shi'ite rivals, he will likely need to ally with one or two other blocs to form the next government.

The gulf between Maliki and Allawi, a secular Shi'ite who governed Iraq from 2004-05, widened ahead of the polls as Allawi criticized the ban of hundreds of candidates, including leading Sunni Arabs from Iraqiya, from the elections over suspected ties to Saddam's Baath party. Maliki supported the ban.

U.N. officials acknowledged the counting was taking longer than expected, but defended IHEC officials who they said were grappling with a complicated system set up to thwart fraud. (Additional reporting by Muhanad Mohammed and Waleed Ibrahim; Writing by Missy Ryan; Editing by Noah Barkin)

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