Iraq announced on Tuesday the results of the provincial council elections after counting 90 percent of the ballots.
The Taqadum party of ousted parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi won the most votes in the capital Baghdad. The State of Law coalition of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki came second.
Some 6 million Iraqis out of 23 million eligible voters took part in the elections.
Voter apathy has increased among a mostly young population that feels it has not seen the benefits of Iraq's massive oil wealth, much of which is misdirected or stolen in a country ranked among the world's most corrupt.
The provincial elections are seen as an indicator of the balance of power in a country where groups close to neighboring Iran have steadily gained influence, and come ahead of 2025 parliamentary polls.
The results from the Independent High Electoral Commission showed that Halbousi’s party won over 132,000 votes in Baghdad, while Maliki’s coalition won around 130,000.
Halbousi’s politically symbolic win may have surprised the Shiite pro-Iran Coordination Framework, which dominated the elections given a boycott by their rival, influential cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Halbousi also came first in the al-Anbar province, winning 154,000 votes, Diyala province with some 75,000 votes, Salaheddine with over 48,000 votes and Ninenveh with some 71,000 votes.
Elsewhere, lists backed by the Coordination Framework were leading in most provinces.
They include a list led by Hadi Al-Amiri's Badr Organization that began as a Shiite paramilitary group, and other Iran-backed factions; and a list including cleric Ammar al-Hakim and former prime minister Haidar al-Abadi.
The Coordination Framework swept strongholds of Sadr, as well as backers of the 2019 Tishreen anti-government protest movement, including Dhi Qar and Misan provinces.
A notable exception came in the southern oil-producing province of Basra, where the Tasmim party of popular governor Asaad al-Edani won with a landslide of more than 250,000 votes - more than all of the Coordination Framework-backed lists put together.
In the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, a Kurdish party allied with the Coordination Framework, took the most votes, followed by a Sunni Arab list and a Turkmen list.
In the northern province of Mosul, a Sunni Arab list supported by the former governor, Najim al-Jabouri, garnered the most votes, followed by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP).
Voting took place on Monday in 15 of Iraq's 18 provinces to select 285 council members who appoint powerful provincial governors and oversee local administration.
