In yesterday's elections, the most influential man in Iraq was not a candidate, was ineligible to cast a ballot, and had not issued any clear directives to voters on which list he preferred.

Nonetheless, the implied blessing of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is deemed critical to the success of the United Iraqi Alliance, a pan-Shia coalition which took nearly half the vote in January's elections and is expected to win the largest share of votes as 15m eligible voters of Iraq's 27m people went to the polls. Between 70 and 80 per cent of eligible voters were expected to vote.