Cleric Sadr wins Iraq poll but forming govt far off

Sadr's Marching Towards Reform bloc won 54 of the 329 seats in parliament in a major upset at a May 12 vote that saw a record level of abstentions as Iraqis turned their back on a widely reviled elite.

The nationalist -- whose Shiite militia battled US troops after the 2003 invasion -- faces a deeply fragmented political landscape and opposition from key player Iran after he called for foreign influence in Iraq to be cut. Sadr, who has reinvented himself as an anti-corruption crusader in an alliance with secular leftists, is looking to be the kingmaker and oversee the formation of a cross-sectarian, technocrat government from some dozen parties. But negotiations -- which tentatively began after the vote -- look set to drag out and it remains far from certain that Sadr's group will claim power after the first vote since the defeat of the Islamic State group. Poised in second place with some 47 seats is the pro-Iranian Conquest Alliance made up of ex-fighters from mainly Shiite paramilitary units that battled IS.

The Victory Alliance bloc of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who hoped voters would reward him for seeing off the jihadists, performed worse than expected and was back in third place on 42 seats.

Sadr declared on Twitter that the results showed "reform has won and corruption is weakened," but he faces a tricky regional context as he begins coalition negotiations.

Writing in The Washington Post Friday, premier Abadi insisted his government would do "all it can to ensure that the transition to the next government is conducted in a stable and transparent manner".

He called for "dialogue" to create a new government that "must be demonstrably non-elitist (and) representative of the people rather than dominated by one side or denomination".

Abadi -- who came to power in 2014 as IS rampaged across Iraq -- has balanced off rivals the US and Iran and could still remain in position as a consensus candidate.