Bombs cloud Iraq election result

BAGHDAD - The final vote tally from Iraq's election was due to be announced today, two weeks after the historic polls that are expected to confirm Shiite political dominance but marginalise the restive Sunni Arab minority.

Farid Ayar, spokesman for Iraq's Electoral Commission, said the final tally would be announced at 4pm Sunday (2am today NZT).

The results were certain to show that the United Iraqi Alliance, a group of mainly Shiite Islamist candidates, has won the most votes.

A senior Alliance source said last night that the Electoral Commission had told the Alliance it had won around 60 per cent. A coalition of Iraq's main Kurdish parties is expected to come second and a bloc led by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi third.

Results so far show few Sunni Arabs voted, which means the minority that dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein will have few seats in the National Assembly that will be formed by the election, and little political influence.

That could stoke the insurgency in Iraq which is being fought mainly by Sunni Arab guerrillas who want to drive out United States-led troops and overthrow the American-backed Government.

Insurgents have mounted repeated attacks against US troops, Iraqi security forces and Government officials, and also against Shiites - raising fears the country could slide towards sectarian civil war. If the election results further polarise Iraqis, the risk of conflict becomes greater.

Iraq will close its land borders from Wednesday to try to prevent a flood of foreign pilgrims arriving for Ashura, one of the holiest events in the Shiite calendar, when millions of people converge on shrines in Iraq.

A car bomb exploded near an Iraqi security forces checkpoint in a mainly Shiite area south of Baghdad last night, killing at least one person.

The same road is expected to be thronged with pilgrims in coming days as millions of Shiites converge on Kerbala for Ashura.

Suicide bombers attacked pilgrims in Baghdad and Kerbala last year, killing 171 people, and there are concerns Ashura could be a flashpoint for violence again this year.

Earlier, a suicide car bomb killed 18 people in Musayyib, a mixed Sunni and Shiite town south of Baghdad. The day before, a suicide car bomb near a Shiite mosque killed 13 people in Balad Ruz, northeast of Baghdad, and gunmen attacked a Shiite bakery in the capital, killing nine.

- REUTERS