20 killed in twin bombing north of Baghdad as Iraqis await final election results

20 killed in blasts as Iraq awaits election tally

BAGHDAD — Iraqi police say a twin bombing at a restaurant in a city north of Baghdad has killed 20 people and wounded dozens more.

The police spokesman for Diyala province, Capt. Ghalib al-Karkhi, said at least 65 people were wounded in the blasts in Khalis, some 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of the capital.

The bombing comes as Iraqis await the final results later Friday from the country’s March 7 parliamentary election. The blasts were the worst violence to hit Iraq since the vote.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqis anxiously awaited the final vote count Friday in the nation’s second full-term parliamentary election, with electoral officials vowing to announce results as scheduled despite fears the expected razor-thin margin could spark violence.

Less than an hour before results were set to be released, two bombs exploded inside a popular restaurant in Khalis, a town 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Baghdad, injuring at least 15, four of them seriously, said Maj. Ghalib Al-Karkhi, the police spokesman in Diyala province.

The full vote tally, which comes nearly three weeks after the elections, will include the highly anticipated allocation of parliamentary seats. Earlier results, based on 95 percent of ballots counted, showed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s mainly Shiite bloc in a virtual tie with the alliance led by former prime minister Ayad Allawi, a Shiite who has garnered heavy Sunni support.

Because neither man will come close to a majority, the victor will need to cobble together a coalition among the various factions representing Iraq’s broad range of religious and ethnic groups.

Al-Maliki, who is fighting for a second four-year term, has tried to distance himself from his sectarian roots and portray himself as a nationalist who helped return stability to Iraq after years of violence. But his support for a ban of hundreds of candidates with alleged ties to Saddam Hussein’s regime severely undercut any support he had from Sunnis, who felt the ban unfairly targeted their candidates.

Many Sunnis instead threw their weight behind Allawi, a secular Shiite who has built a broad coalition drawn from both Islamic sects. Allawi, who served as prime minister from 2004 to 2005, has used his anti-Iran rhetoric to appeal to Sunnis who are wary of Tehran’s influence with their Shiite-majority government.

The tight race has set the stage for protracted political wrangling over forming a new government that could spark new fighting and complicate American efforts to speed up troop withdrawals in the coming months.

It also has prompted calls for a manual recount of the tallies from the March 7 election amid claims of vote rigging and fraud. However, many international observers as well as Iraqi non-governmental organizations that monitored the election have said the process has basically been free and fair.

Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani, himself a candidate, called Thursday for a delay in the release of the results to prevent an outbreak of violence among supporters who feel they were disenfranchised.

Despite the concerns, there was no large-scale security buildup on Baghdad’s streets ahead of the final tally.

“The security situation is still stable and we have not registered any security violations so far,” said Maj. Gen. Qassim al-Mousawi, a spokesman for the city’s operations command center. “So far, we have no plans to increase security measures and impose a curfew in Baghdad or other areas after the announcement of election results.”

Even so, parts of the city were calmer than usual for a Friday, the first day of the weekend in Iraq.

“Most of the shops are closed and few people are walking … today because they are waiting for the elections results and fear what will happen after that,” said Bahnam Esho, 50, in Baghdad’s central Karradah neighborhood.

Elsewhere in the capital, though, it was business as usual. In the Binok and Ur areas of northeastern Baghdad, there were no signs of increased security patrols, and most shops were open. Voters in the ethnically and religiously mixed area differed on their choice of candidate, but several voiced the need to rebuild the war-ravaged country.

“Whoever wins is not important. We want the one premier who offers services,” said retiree Oda Mahmoud, 65.

Commission spokesman Mohammed al-Amjad said Friday the results and seat allocations in the 325-member parliament will be released at 7 p.m. in Baghdad. The announcement is expected to take two hours as tallies from each of Iraq’s 18 provinces will be read out.

Al-Maliki was expected to hold a meeting in Baghdad with his advisers before the release and planned a press conference later Friday, his aide Yassin Majid said, refusing to comment on the agenda.

In recent days, many al-Maliki advisers have warned of the threat of violence from the country’s Shiite majority should they question the results. Others said there also could be a risk of renewed sectarian conflict should the Sunni minority yet again feel alienated from the government and renew their support for the insurgency.

Whoever wins the most seats will get the first stab at choosing the prime minister and forming the new government, which will run the country as U.S. force drawn down from their current level of about 95,000 to 50,000 by the end of August. All U.S. forces are slated to leave Iraq by the end of 2011.

They also will be able to reward allies with control of government ministries and the jobs that go with them.

But no bloc is expected to gain the majority required to act alone, so months of negotiations are expected as former rivals jockey for power. The Kurds, who are expected to win in the three provinces that make up their autonomous region, and followers of anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada al-Sadr are likely to play key roles as kingmakers.

Al-Maliki’s State of Law coalition narrowly trails Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc in overall results released so far. But the prime minister’s bloc is ahead in seven of Iraq’s 18 provinces, compared to Allawi’s five. The allocation of parliament’s seats is based on votes counted per province.

The results won’t be final until they are ratified by the Supreme Court.

The Iraqi capital was mostly calm Friday, although more than 300 al-Maliki supporters held a rally outside the Baghdad provincial council in the city center, demanding a manual recount of the ballots over allegations of fraud and vote rigging.

The electoral commission has said there were no grounds for a recount.

Associated Press Writers Saad Abdul-Kadir, Muhieddin Rashad, Sinan Salaheddin and Adam Schreck contributed to this report.