Former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has pulled ahead in the country’s vote count.

Preliminary results from Iraq's parliamentary elections now show a coalition led by Mr Allawi has about 9,000 more votes than the coalition of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Iraqi officials have claimed about 80 percent of the votes are now counted.

Mr Allawi, a secular Sh'ite, is head of the Iraqiya faction, while Mr Maliki controls the State of Law coalition.

Mr Maliki’s party still leads in Baghdad and the southern province of Basra, where many parliamentary seats are allocated.

The main Kurdish coalition, the Kurdistan Alliance, is ahead in the three provinces in the Kurdistan region.

No faction is expected to win an outright majority, which means the leading parties will have to build a coalition government.