Iraqi journalists and representatives of Iraqi political blocs and entities look at a screen showing the partial preliminary results from five of 18 provinces in Iraq in Baghdad on Thursday. (Hadi Mizban/Associated Press)

Early results from Iraq's election released Thursday show Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in a tight contest with a non-sectarian former premier.

Results from five of the 18 provinces were released, but they represented a setback for Iraq's top Shia religious coalition, the Iraqi National Alliance, which contains some strident religious parties tied to Iran.

The Independent High Electoral Commission released results that showed al-Maliki's coalition ahead in two Shia-dominated southern provinces — Babil and Najaf — while the hardline Shia coalition trailed in second place.

Although the early results are based on a count of only about a third of the votes cast, al-Maliki had polled about 42 per cent of the roughly 160,870 votes counted in Babil.

In Najaf province, al-Maliki garnered about 47 per cent of the 116,000 ballots counted.

Former PM leads in Sunni strongholds

A non-sectarian coalition, Iraqiya, led by former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shia, took the lead in the former Sunni insurgent strongholds of Diyala and Salahuddin.

Allawi's party had about 55 per cent of the vote in Diyala and 60 per cent in Salahuddin with about 17 per cent of the ballots counted.

Results from a fifth province, Irbil, were also released and showed the Kurdish Alliance, which joins the two main Kurdish parties, beating out the upstart Kurdish party, Gorran, in the self-rule territory.

Al-Maliki left the main Shia coalition in 2009 to form his State of Law alliance, which includes some Sunni groups. Al-Maliki made the move to appear more inclusive.

Elections officials in Baghdad appeared overwhelmed by the task of counting and reporting the vote, and did not make the results accessible to the public, although the state-run TV channel reported results so far on Thursday evening.

The poll's complicated ballot contains some 6,200 candidates competing for 325 parliamentary seats.

About 62 of eligible voters cast a ballot in the election, defying a wave of insurgent attacks aimed at disrupting balloting.

Whichever group forms the next government will largely set the course for Iraq, as U.S. combat troops are expected to withdraw from the country in 2011, over eight years after they led the 2002 invasion that helped overthrow the government of Saddam Hussein.

With files from The Associated Press