Final Iraq results due next year

The final results from Iraq's landmark election will be available early next year because numerous complaints of polling abuses need to be investigated, an official said Tuesday.

"The final results will not be announced before the beginning of next year because we have more than 1,000 complaints," election official Farid Ayar told at a news conference.

Those complaints had to be processed and investigated by the electoral commission, he added.

Issuing partial results, Ayar said the main Sunni political coalition, the National Concord Front, was emerging the leading faction in the three Sunni-dominated provinces of Al-Anbar, Nineveh and Salaheddin.

The Front and the cross-sectarian list led by former prime minister Iyad Allawi earlier slammed provisional results in Baghdad that favoured religious Shiites, complained of fraud and threatened to demand a new ballot, according to AFP.

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