Baghdad: The leader of Iraq's top vote-getting coalition in the inconclusive March elections is saying that his bloc still has the right to form the next government.
Eyad Allawi returned to Iraq after touring the Mideast since his cross-sectarian Iraqiya party eked out a slim lead in the balloting. He met the heads of other political parties late on Thursday.
The meetings come after rival conservative Shiite parties formed a new alliance last week. On Thursday, Allawi warned against the rise of sectarian politics. The Iraqiya party, led by secular Shiite Eyad Allawi, won the most seats in parliament with strong backing from the nation's disaffected Sunnis in the March 7 elections, but it cannot form a majority government alone. Now it looks as though Iraqiya will be squeezed out of first place by the new Shiite alliance, effectively losing the first chance to form a governing coalition.
"We hope that the motive and the reason behind this new alliance is purely politics and not to take sides according to the sect," Iraqiya said. "The time of sectarian and ethnical polarisation has gone after it proved to be a threat to the unity of Iraqi people."
Iraq's long-simmering ethnic and sectarian tensions erupted in 2006, following the destruction of a Shiite shrine and the country was brought to the brink of a civil war that resulted in hundreds of deaths per day.
The new Shiite alliance puts the two blocs just four seats short of a ruling majority in the 325-member parliament and will likely lead to another Iraqi government dominated by Shiite parties, much like the current one.
The Iraqiya statement pointed out that as the largest vote-getter in the election, it still should be given the first opportunity to form a government.
