**Iraqi election officials have ordered a manual recount of votes cast in Baghdad after complaints from the incumbent prime minister.**The recount, ordered by a review panel, covers 68 seats in the 325-seat parliament, and could alter the final result of the poll.
The 7 March election was narrowly won by former PM Iyad Allawi, who leads the Iraqiyya list.
But incumbent Nouri Maliki had demanded a recount of votes cast in Baghdad.
Electoral commissioner Hamdiya al-Husseini said the manual recount would begin immediately but she was not sure how long it would take.
Mr Maliki had alleged the electronic system of vote counting was unreliable.
Mr Allawi’s group won 91 seats, two more than Mr Maliki’s State of Law coalition, sparking weeks of negotiations between parties to form a coalition government.
The leader of the group with the biggest number of seats will probably become prime minister.
But the negotiations to form a working majority for a coalition will be further delayed by this decision, The BBC’s Jim Muir in Baghdad says.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
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