BAGHDAD - The two front-runners vying to become Iraq's next prime minister failed to get the support of an influential Shi'ite movement in results from a poll released Wednesday, further muddying the political situation following inconclusive March elections. Instead, the bulk of supporters of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has emerged as a kingmaker, said he should back Shiite politician Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who was interim prime minister from 2005 to 2006. Nearly as many cast ballots for one of al-Sadr's relatives. The Sadrists held the informal weekend poll after former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's secular bloc won just two seats more than incumbent Nouri al-Maliki's coalition in March 7 parliamentary elections. With both sides far short of the majority needed to govern alone, the candidates are now scrambling to muster the support needed to form a government. Al-Sadr became key to those efforts after his followers won at least 39 seats in the 325-seat parliament, up 10 seats from their current standing. That makes them the largest bloc within the Iraqi National Alliance, a Shiite religious coalition that placed third in the race. Al-Sadr's spokesman Salah al-Obeidi announced the results of the poll but left open whether al-Sadr would follow the guidance of his supporters in the course of future negotiations, which are expected to take months, saying that "each event has its own way." The poll of al-Sadr's supporters was widely viewed as a way for the cleric to give himself the opportunity to back someone other than al-Maliki, under the guise of following the people's will. Al-Maliki and Allawi received only 10 per cent and 9 per cent of poll votes respectively. The results were hardly a ringing endorsement for al-Jaafari either, with al-Sadr's relative Mohammed Jaffar al-Sadr receiving 23 per cent of the vote, senior Sadrist politician Qusay al-Suhail receiving 17 per cent, and a handful of others splitting the remainder of the ballots. Al-Sadr rose to prominence after the 2003 US-led invasion, forging a political dynasty based on the network and prestige of his father, a leading Shiite cleric killed by Saddam Hussein in 1999. His followers fought some of the bloodiest battles with US forces and were blamed in some of the worst sectarian violence before they were routed by a series of US-Iraqi offensives in 2008.
