Election officials have had to deal with scores of complaints of fraud

Latest results from Iraq's election show a tight race emerging between incumbent PM Nouri Maliki and main rival Iyad Allawi.

With 80% of votes counted, the coalition headed by former prime minister Mr Allawi has a narrow overall lead for the first time.

However, Mr Maliki remains strong in key regions like Baghdad and Basra.

The BBC's Andrew North, in Baghdad, says the picture could well change by the time all votes are in.

The Iraqi prime minister's State of Law coalition has called for a recount of all the ballots from the parliamentary elections as the bloc led by his main rival pulled ahead in the count.

Ali al-Adeeb, a State of Law candidate and Nouri al-Maliki's spokesman, said on Wednesday that election officials had manipulated tallies in some of the country's 50,000 polling stations before ballots were sent to Baghdad.

BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki held a slender lead on Tuesday over his main rival in his bid to retain the top job, results from Iraq's parliamentary election showed.

While Maliki's State of Law Alliance was leading in the capital and six other southern provinces, his main rival, secular ex-premier Iyad Allawi, appeared to have gained more balanced nationwide support.

Results from the March 7 polls continue to trickle in daily, with election officials — who have pleaded for patience — releasing updated figures based on around 80 per cent of ballots counted by late on Tuesday.

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's bloc has edged ahead of the coalition led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Iraq's parliamentary vote, but al-Maliki remained ahead in the largest provinces, election officials announced Tuesday.

Allawi's al-Iraqia list was ahead of al-Maliki's State of Law coalition by about 9,000 votes of the more than 4.2 million cast for the two leading slates. But al-Maliki's bloc continues to hold a lead in the expected number of seats in Iraq's parliament since the prime minister is ahead in some of the largest provinces.

BAGHDAD-Iraqi election officials published a trickle of new results Tuesday that showed incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's political bloc retaining its narrow edge over the alliance headed by chief rival Ayad Allawi, but they cautioned that final results from the March 7 parliamentary elections were still days away.

The election to choose a new 325-seat parliament is considered a key step in Iraq's transition to stability and a harbinger of whether U.S. troops will be able to begin their planned withdrawal this summer. Both the vote itself and the protracted wait for results have been relatively free of ...

Colombia's governing party and its allies have won a majority in the country's congressional elections.

The U Party, a key supporter of Alvaro Uribe, the president, and its ally the Conservatives, secured the most seats in both the upper and lower houses of parliament, according to partial tallies on Monday.

The U Party won 27 seats in the 102-seat senate, while the Conservative Party won 24, according to initial results from election officials.

BAGHDAD - A coalition led by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki was winning in the all-important capital and a Shiite province in the south, according to a partial tally of election results released Saturday.

If the Baghdad trend continues, the results would be a substantial boost to Maliki and his chances to retain the prime minister's post. Baghdad accounts for 70 of the parliament's 325 seats and would go a long way toward deciding who will be tasked with forming a government that will oversee the country as U.S. forces go home.

baghdad - a coalition led by iraqi prime minister nouri al-maliki was winning in the all-important capital and a shiite province in the south, according to a partial tally of election results released saturday. if the baghdad trend continues

BAGHDAD - Seizing on an early lead in Iraq's election, the prime minister's political coalition began reaching out to rivals Friday as partial results signaled a tight race that was unlikely to produce a clear-cut winner.

It's doubtful that Nouri al-Maliki - even if he keeps his job - will be able to build a seamless government from political parties separated by sectarian fault lines and Shiite rivalries.

BAGHDAD-The Iraqi prime minister's bloc said Friday it has started laying the groundwork to form a coalition government, signaling growing confidence after preliminary election results showed it winning in at least two southern provinces. Iraq The outcome from last week's parliamentary vote was far from certain, with election officials still counting ballots nearly a week after Iraqis went to the polls. Partial tallies so far have only been released from six of Iraq's 18 provinces, excluding Baghdad, and the picture was further muddied Friday when results from one province showed a Shiite religious coalition leading.

Iraq's election commission has postponed announcing initial results from Sunday's parliamentary election because it says it has not finished counting enough votes.

A spokesman for Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission said Tuesday they would make an announcement once they had tabulated 30 percent of the votes. Election officials say they should reach that threshold to present the initial results on Wednesday or Thursday.

Iraq's electoral commission has urged Iraqi political parties to wait for the announcement of official results before declaring victory in the country's parliamentary poll.

Farag al-Haidary, the chairman of the commission, made the appeal in a news conference on Sunday as election officials began counting the ballots following the close of polls.

"The commission calls on all political parties leaders and the Iraqi people to wait until the election outcomes are formally and officially released, as the commission needs a great amount of time in order to reach the rightful conclusion," he said.

The opposition says the result was declared before being validated

The main opposition party in Togo says it does not recognise the result of the election that has returned President Faure Gnassingbe to power.

The Union of Forces for Change said there was widespread fraud and it planned to challenge the result in the country's Constitutional Court.

The party said its leader, Jean-Pierre Fabre, had won the poll and would form the next government.

Election officials in Togo say President Faure Gnassingbe has an early lead in the presidential race, but opposition leaders say they suspect the vote has been rigged.

Togo's electoral agency says President Gnassingbe is ahead with more than half the vote counted in the country's 35 precincts.

An election commissioner representing the opposition complained there is a lack of transparency and questioned the vote's credibility. The commissioner, Jean-Claude Codjo, represents the Union of Forces for Change. The opposition party's candidate, Jean-Pierre Fabre, is in second place.

LOME, Togo - A Togolese police spokesman says officers have fired tear gas on some 200 protesters angry that the opposition party is trailing in the hotly contested presidential election.

Abalo Assih says the protesters led by opposition candidate Jean-Pierre Fabre marched on the main square of the capital around 5 p.m. after learning that the son of the former dictator was leading the polls by some 100,000 votes.

LOME, TOGO - Togo's opposition said Saturday they suspected vote-rigging in the contentious presidential election, as provincial election officials poured into the capital with hand-tallied results after machine-counting failed.

Opposition-appointed election commissioner Jean-Claude Codjo said he was concerned that provincial officials came bearing their total tallies from all of the polling stations in each precinct, instead of ballots or counts from individual polling stations. More than half of the country's 35 precincts had been counted Saturday afternoon, and initial results put the son of the former dictator ahead of his main opposition challenger.

LOME, Togo-Togo's opposition leader claimed an early victory in the presidential race and accused the ruling party of trying to rig the elections, setting the stage for a violent showdown as election officials arrived in the capital Saturday with physical proof of votes that had been cast in the contentious election.

Togo has been ruled by the same family for the past 43 years and has never had a vote that was considered free or fair. Opposition supporters are vowing to take to the streets in massive protests if the ruling family tries to steal this election.

The largest voting machine company in the country bought its biggest competitor six months ago without advance fanfare. Now the Justice Department is investigating whether to unwind the merger that put a privately held Nebraska company in control of the voting machines in nearly 70 percent of the nation's precincts.

With midterm elections looming and a battle for control of Congress under way, a coalition of election officials from several states and voter advocate groups is pressing the Justice Department to unscramble the combination of two companies.

Early voting for the March 2 primary elections begins Tuesday.

It will continue through Feb. 26.

There are two ways to vote early: in person or by mail.

Lists of voting locations are available from county elections offices or on the Web site of the Texas Secretary of State.

Elderly voters, those with physical disabilities and others who have difficulty walking or standing in line for a long time may call ahead to their polling locations and request "curbside voting." Election officials will then deliver ballots to those voters' cars.

KIEV - Election officials named Viktor Yanukovych as the official winner of Ukraine's presidential election yesterday, thwarting Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's hopes of overturning the vote.

Tymoshenko's last recourse is now with the courts, after the Central Election Commission also dismissed her complaints of fraud and misconduct during the Feb. 7 ballot.

Yanukovych won the contest by 3.5 percentage points - about 888,000 of the nearly 25.5 million ballots cast, the commission said. It said he won 48.95 percent in an election that saw nearly 70 percent turnout. Tymoshenko garnered 45.47 percent.