Iraq awaits vote results

Top two blocs neck and neck:

IRAQ: Full results from Iraq’s elections were due yesterday amid a tight race between sitting Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and his main rival Iyad Allawi and fears of a nascent political crisis.

Nearly three weeks after the March 7 Parliamentary polls, the national Election Commission is set to release complete results, with the prolonged counting process fuelling allegations of fraud and vote manipulation.

The results come around five months before the United States is due to withdraw all of its combat troops from Iraq, and Washington will be keen to see a smooth outcome from the election.

Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) is set to publish the figures at a news conference at the Rasheed Hotel in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone at 7pm (1600 GMT).

Figures released by IHEC, based on 95 percent of ballots cast, put just 11,000 votes between Maliki’s State of Law Alliance and Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc.

The two groups are on pace to garner 91 seats apiece in the 325-member Council of Representatives, according to an AFP calculation.

The list that forms the single largest group in parliament will be chosen by Iraq’s president, who is elected by the legislature, to form a government.BAGHDAD, Friday, AFP