Baghdad - Incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law coalition is leading in early returns from Baghdad, Iraq's electoral commission announced Saturday evening. Iraq's ethnically and religiously diverse capital is by far the largest electoral prize in last week's parliamentary elections, with 68 out of 325 seats in the new parliament.
But former prime minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqi List was leading early returns from the northern province of Nineveh, the site of Iraq's second city, Mosul, Judge Qassim al-Aboudi, of the Independent High Electoral Commission, announced on state
television Saturday evening.
Saturday's preliminary results give al-Maliki's coalition a narrow lead over Allawi's, with the vote splitting along geographic lines.
Al-Maliki's The State of Law coalition was leading in provinces south of Baghdad and in the capital, but Allawi's Iraqi List is now leading in three northern provinces.
