Iraq PM emerges as front-runner after vote

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Prime Mi-nister Nuri al-Maliki emerged on Monday as the front-runner in Iraqs parliamentary election but could yet face a tough battle to cling to power.
Maliki polled well according to early forecasts from Iraqs second election since the 2003 ouster of Saddam Hussein that saw millions defy bomb, mortar and rocket attacks which killed 38 people to cast ballots.
President Barack Obama, who has promised to withdraw all US troops from Iraq by the end of next year, paid tribute to the courage and resilience of the Iraqi people who once again defied threats to advance their democracy.
The key estimates from the Baghdad region, which could swing the result of the vote, were not available on Monday but local officials said Malikis political bloc was so far leading the count in nine of Iraqs 18 provinces.
Malikis State of Law Alliance was ahead in Shia regions, while Iyad Allawi, a former premier who heads the Iraqiya list, led in Sunni areas, according to estimates which AFP obtained from officials across the country.
Turnout was 62.4 percent down from 76 percent in the 2005 general election and reached 80 percent of voters in Dohuk, one of three provinces in the northern autonomous Kurdish region, said Hamdiyah al-Husseini of the Independent High Electoral Commission.
We have not received any complaints yet about the counting and collecting of votes, Amal Bairaqdar, another commission official, told reporters at the same press conference.
Husseini said initial results were expected on Tuesday.
But the official final results of the general election are not due until the end of March and it is then likely to take months of horsetrading before a new government is formed.
Early indications, however, were positive for Maliki. A source close to the prime minister said it now looked like his list was going to win 100 seats in the 325-seat parliament.
Maliki was appointed prime minister in 2005 as a compromise candidate and his administration, with the essential help of the US military, sharply reduced the Sunni-Shia sectarian strife that killed tens of thousands of Iraqis.
He played down his partys Shia religious roots in his campaign for this election and sought to portray himself as the leader who restored security to Iraq, a claim dented by a series of bombings in past weeks. One analyst, however, said even if Malikis list was triumphant, his unpopularity among Iraqs many political parties could prevent him from remaining prime minister.
His relations with the Kurds, who play a key role in parliament, are not good, said Hamid Fadel of Baghdad University.
The Iraq National Alliance accuses him of concentrating power in his own office and the Sunnis accuse him of launching a 'de-Baathification process aimed at them, he told AFP, referring to Saddams party.
Malikis main challenger, according to the initial estimates, is Allawi, whose Iraqiya is a mostly Shia slate that has campaigned on a nationalist and non-sectarian ticket.
The other leading list is the Iraq National Alliance, dominated by two Shia religious parties the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council and the movement of radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr, who led two uprisings against US troops.
Sundays vote saw Sunni Arabs return to the ballot box in large numbers, in stark contrast to their 2005 boycott in protest at the rise to power of the long-oppressed Shia majority.
It reached 61 percent in Anbar province that is home to the western towns of Fallujah and Ramadi, which were once hotbeds of insurgency.
As Iraq counted the votes, Britains Foreign Secretary David Miliband said his countrys decision to back the US-led invasion had earned it respect in the Middle East.
Giving evidence to a public inquiry in London into Britains role in the conflict, Miliband insisted that despite all the violence, Iraq now had the potential to be a beacon of democracy and human rights in the region.
The ferocious insurgency that followed the 2003 invasion was the subject of a film that on Sunday triumphed at the Oscar awards in Hollywood.
The Hurt Locker, about a US army bomb disposal squad in Iraq, scooped best director award for its director Kathryn Bigelow as well as the best film and best screenplay prizes.