BAGHDAD, March 14 (Xinhua) -- The Shiite cleric bloc Iraqi National Alliance was leading in the parliamentary elections in the southern province of Dhi Qar, according to partial results from the electoral commission on Sunday.
The Iraqi National Alliance, which is led by Shiite clerics Ammar al-Hakim and Muqtada al-Sadr, won 120,025 votes. The incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law bloc won 114,354 votes as second, followed by the secular list of Iraqia as third, with 20,674 votes, said the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC).
The figures were based on the 58 percent counted votes from the total in Dhi Qar.
On March 7, an estimated 62.4 percent of more than 18 million eligible voters cast their ballots in some 8,920 polling centers across the country to elect the 325-seat Iraqi Council of Representatives out of some 6,300 candidates.
