An Iraqi woman chants anti-Baathist slogans at a protest in Najaf, south of Baghdad, Iraq. Hundreds of residents protested outside the local government office demanding a manual recount of the elections. The banner in Arabic reads, “No for the return of the Baathists.”

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s president on Sunday called for a recount in this month’s parliamentary elections, which have turned into a tight race between the prime minister and a secular rival amid accusations of fraud. A new count could further extend political wrangling in the contentious race. The demand from President Jalal Talabani came a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appeared to back the idea by calling on the election commission overseeing the counting to quickly respond to requests from political blocs for a recount.

The demands are the latest twist to an election that will determine who will govern the country as US troops go home. Counting since the March 7 vote has been slow and plagued with confusion and disarray, fueling claims of fraud, though international observers have said the vote and count have been fair.

It remained unclear what the demands from Talabani and al-Maliki would produce. The electoral commission an independent body appointed by parliament swiftly dismissed the calls and urged political parties to be patient and lodge their complaints through the appropriate channels.

“It is not possible that a political entity, which believes there might have been a mistake at a particular polling station, can demand a manual recount for an entire city or for the whole of Iraq,” said commission chief, Faraj al-Haidari. Talabani demanded in a statement on his official web site on Sunday an immediate recount to “preclude any doubt and misunderstanding” about the results. He said he was making the demand “as the president of the state, authorised to preserve the constitution and to ensure justice and absolute transparency.”

Al-Maliki, whose bloc is among those seeking a recount, issued a statement late Saturday calling on the commission to respond to the demands, saying that doing so quickly would “protect the democratic experiment and maintain the credibility of elections.”

The prime minister said an urgent response to the calls would “preserve the political stability and avoid the deterioration of security … and a return to violence.” The latest partial results, released on Saturday, showed al-Maliki’s secular challenger, former prime minister Ayad Allawi, pulling ahead again by a slim margin over the prime minister’s coalition in the overall tally with 92 per cent of the ballots counted.

However, al-Maliki is winning in seven of Iraq’s 18 provinces, which is significant because parliament seats are allotted based on the outcome of voting in each province.

Both Allawi’s Iraqiya list and al-Maliki’s State of Law coalition have alleged fraud in the counting though many blocs’ claims have sometimes appeared to reflect how well they are doing in the tally.

Al-Haidari, the commission chief, said any political bloc “can feel it was cheated at this polling station or that.”

“But to launch unconfirmed accusations against the commission does not serve either the person behind such statements or the election and the political process,” he said. Al-Haidari added that results of a 100 per cent count would be released on Friday evening. He did not explain why it would take so long to count the few remaining votes.