Iraqi PM's bloc leads in Baghdad: electoral commission

A bloc led by incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was leading the vote in Baghdad in the March 7 parliamentary election, partial results posted by Iraq's electoral commission showed on Saturday.

Eighteen percent of the preliminary results showed that Maliki' s State of Law bloc won 150,000 votes and the Iraqi National Alliance, led by Shiite religious parties, garnered around 108,000, while the secular Iraqia bloc, headed by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, came in third with 105,000 votes.

Partial results released by the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission in the past two days showed Maliki's bloc was the front-runner in the Shiite provinces in southern Iraq and Allawi's bloc was leading in the Sunni provinces, while the Kurdish Alliance was heading in Arbil province in Iraq's Kurdish region.

On March 7, an estimated 62.4 percent of more than 18 million eligible voters cast their ballots in some 8,920 polling centers across the country to elect the 325-seat Iraqi Council of Representatives out of some 6,300 candidates.

Source:Xinhua