Shias, Kurds set to grab top Iraqi jobs

"Looking at the partial results, it appears that the Sistani list will have more than 50 percent and that Kurdish parties will come second," said Sunni politician Saad Abdel Razzak.

"They should therefore share the posts of president and prime minister between themselves."

Partial results announced on Monday showed that the Shia coalition backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani had obtained 2,244,237 out of 4,366,843 votes counted, or 51.4 percent of ballots cast.

It could even improve this score when the rest of the polling stations in remaining Shia-dominated southern provinces are counted, securing around 140 out of the National Assembly's 275 seats.

Meanwhile, a very high turnout in the northern Kurdish areas also guarantees the joint ticket formed by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) a strong presence in parliament and plum posts in the government.

With 1,075,534 votes, the Kurds are emerging as the second political force in the country, ahead of the Iraqi List of incumbent prime minister, Iyad Allawi.