BAGHDAD - Preliminary results from Iraq's national election began to trickle in on Thursday, showing Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki ahead in the country's largely Shi'ite south. Preliminary results from the electoral commission, the first to be released, showed Maliki ahead in Najaf and Babil provinces south of Baghdad. But full initial results from across Iraq's 18 provinces, including areas where support is expected to be strong for Maliki's rivals, were still unknown four days after a national election Iraqis hoped would bring stable government and help end years of sectarian conflict as US troops ready to leave. Officials at Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) said full initial results, which are to be made public when 30 per cent of the vote is counted, may be released later on Thursday. Final results may take weeks. They are anxiously awaited by foreign oil companies making plans to invest billions of dollars and vault Iraq into the top echelon of global producers, and by Washington policymakers as the United States prepares to formally end combat operations by the end of August and leave the country before 2012. The IHEC results showed Maliki's State of Law coalition with 124,734 votes in the two provinces with at least 30 per cent of votes counted, followed by 103,583 for a mainly Shi'ite rival, the Iraqi National Alliance. A secular, cross-sectarian list headed by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi got 40,916 votes. That list is expected to do well in Sunni areas in north and western Iraq. A clear victory by any of the blocs is unlikely and negotiations to form a coalition government could take months, leaving the possibility of a dangerous political vacuum.
