BAGHDAD, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- The coalition backed by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki won more than 25 percent of the provincial council seats in election results released Thursday.
Officials with the Independent High Electoral Commission of Iraq announced the official results of the January provincial elections Thursday, saying the State of Law coalition secured major victories in several provinces, including the oil-rich Basra, the Voices of Iraq news agency reports.
State of Law won 28 out of the 57 seats in Baghdad province and 20 of the 35 in Basra province. In Dhi Qar and Wassit, the Maliki slate took 13 seats, following by 11 in Qadisiyah, nine in Karbala, and eight each in Babel and Maysan.
Rival candidates with al-Mehrab Martyr list of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council took an equal number in Maysan with eight seats. Both slates also split with seven seats in Najaf, a religious center in the Shiite faith, while independent candidates supported by the Sadrist Movement of Moqtada Sadr took six of the Najaf provincial seats.
Meanwhile, in Ninawa province in the north, Sunni al-Hadbaa list took 19 of the 37 council seats. Al-Hadbaa's victory is potentially destabilizing as rival Kurdish candidates lost out to the Sunni slate. Minority religious groups, including Christians and Yazidis, scored seats in Ninawa as well.
Tribal councils aligned with the Sunni Awakening movement fared well in Anbar province with eight seats. The Sunni Accordance Front narrowly won in Diyala with nine seats.
Iraq voted in provincial elections Jan. 31 in 14 of the 18 provinces. The Kurdish provinces and Kirkuk tentatively vote later in 2009. Parliamentary elections and a public referendum on the bilateral Status of Forces Agreement are expected also later in the year.
