Iraqi officials on Thursday postponed the release of preliminary results from the March 7 parliamentary election.
An official with Iraq's electoral commission told the German Press Agency dpa that preliminary results from the vote would be announced "within the coming days", possibly as early as Thursday evening.
Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) and the United Nations had earlier said the results were ready to be announced on Thursday morning.
"It is important that all parties accept the results which are not final, but they must take into consideration that the counting is an honest process," Baghdad's Aswat al-Iraq news agency quoted Ad Melkert, the top UN official in Iraq, as saying.
No reason was given for the delay in the announcement of the results.