Early signs show Iraq's Maliki sweeps south in poll

By Aref Mohammed

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's candidates look set for sweeping victories in provincial polls, a result that could overturn the post-Saddam political order and strengthen the hand of a leader once seen as weak.

Although official preliminary results will not be published for days, leaders of rival Shi'ite parties acknowledged that Maliki's State of Law coalition appeared to be headed for a substantial win and perhaps a landslide in Shi'ite areas.

A government official close to the prime minister said State of Law appeared to have won in all nine southern Shi'ite provinces, as well as Shi'ite East Baghdad.

"The others are competing for second or third," he said.

If confirmed, the results would amount to a crushing defeat for religious parties that have run Shi'ite provinces with little heed to Baghdad since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein.

The prime minister, who campaigned hard with a nationalist law-and-order message in the weeks before Saturday's vote, would have strong momentum in his bid to hold on to power in national elections later this year in the majority Shi'ite country.

"According to initial information, (Maliki's) list has come first in Basra with 50 percent of the vote, (ours) took 20 percent," said Furat al-Sheraa, the head in Basra of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (ISCI), the party that has controlled most southern provinces since the U.S.-led invasion.

A source at Basra's electoral commission said that the State of Law slate was indeed ahead in early counting in the city, Iraq's second largest and source of most of its oil exports.