Iraq counts votes as record abstentions hit elections

BAGHDAD, May 13 (AFP): Iraq tallied votes Sunday as record abstentions dealt a blow to a political elite reviled for its perceived corruption, in the country's first national poll since it defeated the Islamic State group.

The counting process to determine the makeup of the 329-seat parliament was expected to take days -- and the horse-trading to form a new government far longer.

But what has emerged already is that many across the war-scarred nation are fed up with the establishment that has dominated since the 2003 US-led ouster of Saddam Hussein.

"The policies of the last 15 years no longer convince voters," Amir al-Saadi, a politics professor at the University of Baghdad, told AFP.

Official turnout on Saturday was 44.5 percent -- the lowest in any national poll since the US-led invasion -- with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi angling for a new term after overseeing the fight against IS.

Abadi -- a consensus figure who has balanced off the United States and Iran -- faces several major challengers from within his dominant Shiite community four years after coming to power.