Incumbent Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's coalition remains "committed" to seeing him serve another term, a spokesman said Sunday. Al-Maliki has vowed to challenge results from the March 7 polls announced Friday, which gave former prime minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqi List a two-seat lead, despite Allawi's invitation to "all parties" to join in talks aimed at forming a government.
"We are still committed to nominating Nuri al-Maliki as the only candidate to head the next government," Hajim al-Hosni, spokesman for al-Maliki's State of Law coalition, told the German Press Agency dpa.
"We are not having any talks with the Iraqi List," he said. Al-Maliki has said he will seek a court ruling requiring a manual recount of the votes, saying he had evidence of instances of fraud, particularly in Baghdad and Mosul.
In another move that could tilt the results in al-Maliki's favour, Iraq's Justice and Accountability Commission on Saturday said it might also disqualify an additional 50 candidates, including some from Allawi's coalition, for their alleged past connections to the banned Baath Party.
The same body ignited fierce controversy ahead of the elections by banning hundreds of candidates from standing in the polls. Friday's results gave Allawi's list 91 seats out of 325 in the new parliament, to the State of Law's 89. The Iraqi National Alliance (INA), a coalition of mostly Shiite religious parties, won 70 seats.
The Kurdistan Alliance, a union of the two parties that have for decades defined Kurdish politics, won 43 seats, enough to cement their role as a crucial part of the new government. "We are talking with the INA and the Kurdistan Alliance because we believe these two entities are close to our platform, vision, direction, and faith in the constitution," State of Law's al-Hosni told dpa. There had recently been "a marked improvement" in the negotiations, he said, adding that al-Maliki's coalition hoped to form an alliance in the coming days.
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