Influential Shiite religious leader Abdel-Mahdi al-Karbala'i on Friday called on Iraq's electoral commission to announce parliamentary election results quickly, DPA reported.
In a sermon to thousands of worshippers gathered at the Imam Hussein mosque in the city of Karbala, the cleric said he hoped Iraq's electoral commission would "professionally complete the counting and sorting of the votes to allay suspicions and doubts."
Any delay in presenting the results of the March 7 polls, Iraq's second parliamentary elections since the 2003 US-led invasion of the country, "would delay and confuse the formation of the next parliament," said al-Karbala'i, a close aide of revered Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
Iraq's electoral commission on Thursday announced early results from five out of Iraq's 18 provinces that showed coalitions led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and former prime minister Ayad Allawi leading in two provinces each.
Influential Shiite cleric calls for swift Iraqi vote count
