The announcement was made today by Adnan al-Dulaimi, leader of the Iraqi Accordance Front.
Partial results from the 15 December parliamentary elections show the Shi'ite bloc -- the United Iraqi Alliance -- receiving 59 percent of the vote in the capital. The Iraqi Accordance Front came a distant second with about 19 percent.
Baghdad and its surrounding province is the key contest in the vote as it will account for more than three times more seats in parliament than any other region.
In other news, the U.S. military announced that eight former officials in Saddam Hussein's government have been released from U.S. custody in Iraq, saying they no longer posed a security threat.
Those released were not named, but reports said they include two women who had been working in Saddam's biological weapons program.
(Reuters/dpa/AFP)
Coalition Images Of The Voting
The Multinational Force in Iraq on December 15, 2005, released official images of the voting in the legislative elections. To view a slideshow of their photographs, click on the image.
To see RFE/RL's special webpage about the election, click here.
