Early results showed Maliki’s State of Law bloc ahead in seven of 18 provinces, with the Iraqiya list headed by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi in second place, leading in five.
The Iraqi National Alliance (INA), Maliki’s main competitor among Iraq’s Shi’ite majority, trailed close behind, the last of three blocs leading a divided vote that reflects a nation fragmented by decades of sectarian and ethnic conflict.
The outcome of Iraq’s first parliamentary poll since 2005 will shape its future as nascent stability is tested by the coming U.S. troop withdrawal and political struggles undermining Iraq’s efforts to re-establish itself on the world stage.
Maliki, who many Iraqis credit for improving security, won almost twice as many votes as the INA in southern Basra, ground zero for a wave of new investment into Iraq’s rich oil sector.
Allawi’s Iraqiya, a secularist, cross-sectarian list, was a distance third in Basra, but initial results showed him sweeping western Anbar, a stronghold for minority Sunnis whose long political dominance ended with Saddam Hussein’s ouster in 2003.
Allawi, a secular Shi’ite, also galvanized support among Sunni Arab voters in northern Nineveh, still gripped by a tenacious Sunni Islamist insurgency.
The early results represent more than 3 million votes of about 12 million cast. Final results are not expected for weeks.
