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a Shiite coalition,the Iraqi National Alliance,
that hopes to deny Mr.Maliki a second term.
"It is a desperate and weak message."

The violence was not limited to Baghdad.In Anbar Province,
west of the capital, at least 10 explosions rang through
the city of Falluja at 8 a.m.
The police there said they had been mortar rounds fired from
the outskirts of the city.

A series of attacks also struck across Diyala,a volatile province northeast of Baghdad.
Two of them were improvised bombs that struck an American and an Iraqi convoy.
According to security officials, at least four people were injured,
two of them Iraqi soldiers.

The voting Sunday came after a short,intense campaign that could solidify
Iraq's nascent democracy or leave the country fractured along ethnic and
sectarian lines. Still,the campaign unfolded as the most open,
most competitive election in the nation's long history of colonial rule,
dictatorship and war.

Iraq's election is a test of the coutry's democracy,nearly seven years
after the American overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
Whether it succeeds could affect a final American withdrawal now scheduled
to be completed by the end of 2011.