BAGHDAD — Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s political coalition took an early vote lead Saturday in the election’s all-important battleground of Baghdad, pulling away from its two closest rivals in the latest indication that Iraqis want a moderate government instead of Shiite religious hard-liners leading the postwar nation.
Partial results released by the Independent High Electoral Commission showed the State of Law coalition with about a 60,000-vote edge nationwide over its main moderate challenger, the secular Iraqiya coalition. The Shiite fundamentalist Iraqi National Alliance was in third place.
The partial Baghdad vote was released amid utter disarray in the election commission’s headquarters, where the results were flashed on TVs but yanked down moments later, only to be released yet again.
The chairman of the electoral commission, Faraj al-Haidari, said preliminary nationwide results could be released as early as today — a full week after the vote for a 325-member parliament that will choose a prime minister to form a government that will lead the country as U.S. troops prepare to go home.
Allegations of fraud also have plagued the ballot tally. The electoral commission said more than 2,000 complaints had been received as of Saturday, but it gave no specifics, saying only that they would be investigated.
