FINANCIAL TIMES: A secular coalition led by Iyad Allawi narrowly won the most seats in this month’s Iraq parliamentary elections, according to results released Friday night. The announcement has set the stage for the potentially rare dismissal of an Arab leader at the polls.
The results mark a remarkable turnaround for Mr Allawi, who served as prime minister in 2004 in the wake of the US-led war to oust Saddam Hussein, and a blow to Nouri -al-Maliki, the current prime minister.
According to full preliminary results, Mr Allawi and his Iraqiya list won 91 seats, compared with 89 for Mr Maliki’s State of Law bloc…
A disgruntled Mr Maliki said the results were not final. “For sure, we will not accept these results,” he said… (more)
