In Iraq, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's political coalition has taken the lead after last weekend’s vote.

In the all-important Baghdad electorate, al-Maliki’s party, the State of Law coalition, has been seen to be pulling away from its two closest rivals.

Partial results released by the Independent High Electoral Commission showed the State of Law coalition with about a 60,000-vote edge nationwide over its main moderate challenger, the secular Iraqiya coalition. The Shiite fundamentalist Iraqi National Alliance was in third place.

So far, al-Maliki's coalition is leading in five of the 11 provinces where the vote has been partially counted. Iraq has a total of 18 provinces.

Even though the vote counting process has been marred with problems, electoral commission officials have said preliminary nationwide results could be released as early as Sunday.

Allegations of fraud have plagued the ballot tally, with more than 2,000 complaints received by this weekend.

The electoral commission has said they will all be investigated.