An Iraqi election official says a recount of votes in Baghdad from Iraq's March 7 election has not changed the parliamentary seat allocation.
An official with the Independent High Electoral Commission, Saad al-Rawi, said Sunday the number of seats for any coalition will stay as it is, leaving former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's bloc the winner of the most seats.
Allawi's Iraqiya bloc had won 91 parliamentary seats in the election, closely followed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's coalition with 89. Neither had the majority needed to form a government.
Election officials began the recount in Baghdad on May 3 following an appeal from Maliki's State of Law coalition. The coalition said it had uncovered evidence of widespread fraud in five provinces, including Baghdad. The Iraqi capital accounts for nearly a fifth of the country's 325-seat parliament.
On Friday, the country's electoral commission said officials completed the recount of more than 11,000 ballot boxes and found no major fraud violations.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
