Shiite Alliance Leads In Partial Iraq Count

Allawi's office in Baghdad had no comment. He is believed to have strong support in Sunni areas that have not been counted. Lami, the elections commission head, said all of the ballot boxes might be counted this week. But the distribution of the parliament seats will follow a lengthy process of checking and rechecking the count, and settling the complaints of elections violations. Those complaints will be evaluated to determine whether they could likely affect individual outcomes, elections commission officials said.

The Kurdish coalition avoided being splintered by smaller parties in the north and swept to large majorities there, according to the partial results. In the interim parliament elected in January, the Kurds were the second-largest political grouping, and a Kurd was chosen to be Iraq's largely ceremonial president. But their strength, as well as that of the main Shiite alliance, was expected to be diminished by the decision of the minority Sunni Arabs to participate in this election. Sunnis largely boycotted the January vote.

The main question appeared to be how big the victory of the Shiite majority would be. Monday's preliminary results pointed to a likelihood that the alliance would gain a simple majority in the assembly and lessen its need to build a coalition to form a government.

Officials of the Shiite alliance viewed their apparent success cautiously.

"We have our own estimates, and we will compare them to the results the commission announced, and then we will give our opinion," said Ridha Jawad Taqi, a spokesman for the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the dominant party in the alliance.

Even if the alliance maintains its majority position in the next parliament, there is no guarantee it can avoid internal splits, said Wamidh Nadhmi, a political science professor at the University of Baghdad.

He noted that Moqtada Sadr, a rebellious Shiite cleric who had been coaxed to join the Shiite list, appeared to have fielded successful candidates in a separate slate as well. A list associated with his Mahdi Army militia came in fourth in Baghdad with enough votes to likely guarantee him a seat in parliament.

"This is an indication there could be further trouble" between Sadr and the other Shiite factions, Nadhmi said.

Correspondent Jonathan Finer and special correspondents Omar Fekeiki and K.I. Ibrahim contributed to this report.