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| Sadr holds referendum on Iraq PM | Sadr holds referendum on Iraq PM |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| The Iraqi political grouping of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr is holding its own a referendum on who should be the country's prime minister. | The Iraqi political grouping of Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr is holding its own a referendum on who should be the country's prime minister. |
| The bloc Mr Sadr belongs to came third in the election on 7 March. Whoever it backs stands a good chance of leading the next government. | The bloc Mr Sadr belongs to came third in the election on 7 March. Whoever it backs stands a good chance of leading the next government. |
| None of the four alliances that won big parliamentary blocs in the vote can form a government on their own. | None of the four alliances that won big parliamentary blocs in the vote can form a government on their own. |
| Since the vote there has been little progress towards forming a government. | Since the vote there has been little progress towards forming a government. |
| "The political situation is complicated and [Moqtada Sadr] has always said that the best advisers are the Iraqi people," Hazem al-Araji, one of the movement's leaders, told the AFP newsagency. | "The political situation is complicated and [Moqtada Sadr] has always said that the best advisers are the Iraqi people," Hazem al-Araji, one of the movement's leaders, told the AFP newsagency. |
| The two biggest contenders, led by the incumbent Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, and the secular challenger Iyad Allawi, who came out narrowly ahead, are highly unlikely to work together. | The two biggest contenders, led by the incumbent Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, and the secular challenger Iyad Allawi, who came out narrowly ahead, are highly unlikely to work together. |
| There are five candidates on the ballot, all of them Shia politicians | |
| That leaves the third-ranking bloc, the Iraqi National Coalition, which has 70 seats, as the king-makers. Moqtada Sadr's faction won 40 seats, the biggest share of that coalition's seats. | That leaves the third-ranking bloc, the Iraqi National Coalition, which has 70 seats, as the king-makers. Moqtada Sadr's faction won 40 seats, the biggest share of that coalition's seats. |
| The referendum offers a choice of five candidates, all of them Shia Muslims - Mr Maliki, Mr Allawi, former PM Ibrahim Jaafari, Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi and Jaafar Sadr, the son of an assassinated ayatollah. | |
| The Sadrist movement is clearly against giving Mr Maliki a second term, and cynics have suggested the referendum is a way of formalising that position as the will of the people rather than the pursuit of a personal or political grudge, the BBC's Jim Muir reports from Baghdad. | The Sadrist movement is clearly against giving Mr Maliki a second term, and cynics have suggested the referendum is a way of formalising that position as the will of the people rather than the pursuit of a personal or political grudge, the BBC's Jim Muir reports from Baghdad. |
| The Sadr movement has not forgiven Mr Maliki for crushing its Mehdi Army militia in Basra and Baghdad two years ago. | The Sadr movement has not forgiven Mr Maliki for crushing its Mehdi Army militia in Basra and Baghdad two years ago. |
| Al-Iraqiyya (Iraqi National Movement): Nationalist bloc led by former PM Iyad Allawi, a secular Shia, includes Vice-President Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, and senior Sunni politician Saleh al-MutlaqState of Law: Led by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and his Shia Islamist Daawa Party, the alliance purportedly cuts across religious and tribal lines, includes some Sunni tribal leaders, Shia Kurds, Christians and independentsIraqi National Alliance: Shia-led bloc includes followers of the radical cleric, Moqtada Sadr, the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, and the Fadhilah Party, along with ex-PM Ibrahim Jaafari and Ahmad ChalabiKurdish alliance: Coalition dominated by the two parties administering Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region - the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, led by President Jalal Talabani |