The Islamist Shia Alliance bloc will fall short of retaining its parliamentary majority after last month's election, according to an almost final tally of seats in the chamber.
With six of 275 seats yet to be allocated, the Alliance and their present Kurdish coalition partners were also one seat shy of the two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution, figures provided by source at the Electoral Commission showed.
Final results are expected next week following a review of procedures by international observers responding to complaints of fraud by minority Sunni Arab and secular parties. No major change in the results from the December 15th vote is expected.
Sunni Arab parties, which boycotted last January's vote for the interim assembly, have been disappointed at the results but appear ready to take part in a grand coalition government.
The United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), formed by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the Dawa party and followers of nationalist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, have 129 seats on the present tally, nine short of a majority and 11 fewer than in the interim assembly.
The main Kurdish bloc, which rules with the Shi'ites, has 52 seats on the present count, down from 75 at present; a certain fluidity in allegiances has made precise calculations of voting strength in the interim assembly difficult.
In the outgoing parliament, the Shia Alliance and the Kurds were able to combine to produce a two-thirds majority of 182 seats but that may not be possible in the new legislature, depending on the allocation of the final handful of seats under a complex procedure intended to favour smaller parties.
The main Sunni Arab bloc, the Iraqi Accordance Front, would receive 42 seats, and another Sunni grouping with which it might ally, the National Dialogue Front led by Saleh al-Mutlak, would have 10 or 11 seats, the Electoral Commission source said.