Elections: Allawi wins by slight margin, al-Maliki rejects results

Allawi - a secular Shiite backed by Sunnis and Christians - has already opened negotiations to form alliances with other groups. "Iraqiya - he said - will its heart to all political forces and all those who want to build Iraq. We will put to an end together politics based on ethnicity and religion". It is likely that in order to have a majority, Allawi will have to ally himself to the party of Moqtada al-Sadr (Iraqi National Alliance, of the Shiite religious mould), which took 70 seats and the Kurdish group, which won 43 seats.    

Some observers suggest an alliance government between the Allawi and Maliki, to give stability to the country, but the ambitions of both seem to exclude this possibility.    

As a reminder of the fragility of the situation yesterday, just before the announcement of the results, there were two bomb attacks in Diyala, north of the capital, which left 42 people dead and 65 wounded.  

 

The coalition that emerges will have to resolve the issues that are being debated for some time on in Iraq: federalism and centralism, the distribution of oil revenues, the status of Kirkuk. In addition it will face the problem of security, while U.S. forces are preparing to withdraw by the end of the year.    

Those of 7 March are the second elections since the fall of Saddam Hussein. 63% of voters participated.