Dawlat al-Qanoon leading in 6 provinces

BAGHDAD /Iraqi News Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Dawlat al-Qanoon (State of Law) bloc is leading in the preliminary vote counting results in six southern Iraq predominantly-Shiite provinces, according to Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission. “Dawlat al-Qanoon is leading in the provinces of Babel, Najaf, Thi-Qar, Wassit, Diwaniya and al-Muthanna while former premier Iyad Allawi’s al-Iraqiya bloc is retaining its dominance in Diala and Salah al-Din,” the IHEC announced on Saturday. In northern Iraq’s Kurdish areas the Kurdistan Alliance (KA) of the two main Kurdish parties of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barazani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) is ahead in the race in Arbil, followed by the archrival bloc of the Change List led by Noshirwan Mostafa. AmR (P) 2