Rival Iraqi political parties on Thursday made contradictory claims of how they fared in the March 7 parliamentary polls, ahead of the release of preliminary results, DPA reported.
Politicians from Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's two primary rivals, the Iraqi National Alliance and former prime minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqi List, both claimed they had placed second in the vote, setting the stage for a possible confrontation over preliminary results when they are announced.
An Iraqi elections official told the German Press Agency dpa that results would come within the next few days, possibly as early as Thursday evening.
Shiite lawmaker Ezzat al-Shahbandar, who ran with Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law coalition, on Thursday afternoon told dpa he expected that al-Maliki would have to join with his competitors in the polls to form a government.
"Whatever the results ... the State of Law coalition will not be able to form a government alone," he said. "We will have to form alliances with other lists to form a government."
But the shape of that coalition seemed likely to be the source of animated debate, with some politicians warning of fraud even ahead of the announcement of preliminary results.
The Iraqi National Alliance, a mostly Shiite coalition led by the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq (SICI), said in a statement it had placed a close second to al-Maliki's list, and that the Iraqi List had placed a distant third. It claimed those results came from monitors in 11 provinces, with 85 per cent of those votes counted.
"We need a strong government, with broad representation of the whole spectrum of the Iraqi people," SICI leader Ammar al-Hakim said in a separate statement.
"Iraq can not be managed by one man or one party," he said.
By contrast, Azhar al-Shikhli, of Allawi's Iraqi List, told dpa that her coalition also believed it had placed second in the polls, based on a strong showing in Baghdad, Mosul, and other key districts.
Osama al-Nujaifi, who led his Arab nationalist party to victory in the northern city of Mosul in the 2009 provincial polls and who ran on Allawi's Iraqi List in the national elections, warned of fraud in the preliminary results.
"The commission warned of the manipulation of the preliminary results that will be announced during the next few hours," he told dpa.
There would be "a very strong reaction" if it turned out that "manipulation was larger than expected," al-Nujaifi, who had earlier projected a landslide victory for the Iraqi List in Mosul, warned.