Saturday, February 5 2005 21:08 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Baghdad: The final result of Iraq's historic election will be announced within five days, the electoral commission said today (Feb 5, 2005).

"God willing, we will announce the final results before February 10," said commission official Farid Ayar.

After the final result "appeals can be made for nine days. Afterwards, the commission will validate the final results" having taken appeals into account, said Ayar.

The final vote count continued today, although no new partial results were given.

Speculation as to when final results would be announced has been rife in recent days, with commission officials citing several different dates.

According to results announced on Friday (Feb 4, 2005), the United Iraqi Alliance list backed by Iraq's Shiite spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has over 2.2 million out of the 3.3 million votes counted.

That gave the Sistani list 67 percent of the vote and a commanding lead over Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's list, which won 579,708 votes, or 17 percent.

Friday's results came from 10 provinces, which account for about 35 percent of the country's polling stations.

Another commission member, Adel al-Lami, said, "120 complaints have been filed from overseas and more than 100 inside Iraq."

He said most were claims that some parties had campaigned beyond the deadline or dealt with problems encountered in areas where some polling stations did not open or electoral equipment was lacking.