Iraqiya walking away from Iraqi gov't?

BAGHDAD, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- The secular Iraqiya slate will back out of the Iraqi political process if rival parties try to circumvent its constitutional rights, a spokesman said.

Iraqiya won March 7 parliamentary elections in Iraq by two seats but, with 91 seats, fell well short of the 163-seat majority needed to form a new government alone.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose State of Law slate came in second, is inching closer to building a majority coalition with mounting Shiite support and backing from his former patrons in Tehran.

Iraqiya, however, maintains that it has the constitutional right to try to form a new government first because it was the winner in the March election.

Haider al-Mullah, a spokesman for the group, said the secular slate would leave the political process if its constitutional rights were ignored, however.

"If some blocs attempt to circumvent national accord and appropriate Iraqiya's electoral and constitutional rights, (the party) frankly announces that withdrawal from the political process will be its response to these attempts," he said in a statement.

Iyad Allawi, the former Iraqi interim prime minister who leads Iraqiya, said in an interview with London's Guardian newspaper that he may be walking away from the political process.

"I have come to accept that opposition is a real option for us," he told the newspaper. "We are in the final days of making a final decision on this issue."