BAGHDAD: Iraq's prime minister said Thursday his Sunni-backed rivals, who narrowly won the March election, were wasting their time trying to form a new government, in a remark sure to raise tensions. Shia Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki accused the winning Iraqiya list headed of delaying the political process, even though it was the premier himself who mounted a series of challenges to the results postponing the final tally. "I say to our brothers in Iraqiya list: you are wasting your time and delaying the political process," Al-Maliki told the independent daily Al-Mada. Iraqiya won 91 of 325 seats in parliament over 89 for Al-Maliki's bloc. Because neither have a majority, they need coalition partners to form a government. Al-Maliki has already formed an alliance with another Shia bloc that came in third in the election, and together they are just four seats short of a majority. Iraq's constitution says the bloc with the most seats should get the first crack at forming a government, which Iraqiya leader Ayad Allawi believes gives him the mandate. Al-Maliki claims that his post-election alliance gives him the largest bloc and the right to form the government. Sunni anger over being largely excluded from government following the US-led invasion was seen as a key reason behind the insurgency and subsequent sectarian violence that brought Iraq to the brink of civil war. Now many fear that if Allawi's Sunni-backed bloc is largely excluded from government the violence could return. While violence has fallen dramatically in Iraq since the height of the insurgency, a spate of attacks, including one last week that killed 119 people, has heightened fears that insurgents are regrouping. In the northern city of Mosul, a suicide bomber detonated an explosives belt at a police checkpoint on Thursday, killing one policeman and wounding 12 people, police and morgue officials said on condition anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
