Early Iraqi tally shows Maliki with narrow lead (McClatchy Newspapers)

BAGHDAD — Partial results released Thursday show the bloc led by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki ahead in a tight race in parliamentary elections, as his two biggest rivals alleged fraud and demanded more transparency in the ballot-counting process.

As of Thursday evening, Maliki was ahead in two southern Shiite Muslim provinces — Babil and Najaf — where his strongest opponents came from religious parties with close ties to Iran , according to incomplete tallies released by Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission , the body that's overseeing the elections. The vote took place Sunday.

Maliki's opponents disputed the results, which fall in line with independent monitoring groups' projections that the prime minister was the nation's top vote-getter. The results represent only about a third of the votes cast for those two provinces.

Complaints came from the two main challengers: the Iraqiya slate, anchored by former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi , who's a secular Shiite with a large Sunni Muslim following; and the Iraqi National Alliance , an umbrella slate for Iranian-backed religious parties and the secular Shiite politician Ahmad Chalabi , a former U.S. ally.

Both camps claimed fraud related to ballot gathering and counting, and demanded that the early totals from each polling station be posted online to make sure that the numbers jibe with the final count.

"How can we be sure about the output when we don't know the input?" said Entifadh Qanbar, a senior Chalabi associate and a candidate with the Iraqi National Alliance .

Hamdiya al Husseini , a senior official with the electoral commission, said the results would be posted online. She added that some irregularities had occurred, but so far nothing serious enough to discredit the election.

No candidate is expected to win an outright majority, which means a period of bargaining among the tickets and fierce jockeying to ally with the Kurds, whose support is crucial for building a coalition to form the next government.

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