Voters across Iraq have been to the polls for the first national election since the country declared victory over Islamic State.

Three men were killed by a bomb that was attached to their car in a Sunni Arab region south of Kirkuk - an attack security services are linking to the election.

Two of them were voters while the third was a bystander in a polling station.

Islamic State says it was behind Saturday's attack after earlier warning it would target polling day.

Almost 7,000 candidates from dozens of political alliances are competing for 329 parliamentary seats - with results expected by Monday following the closing of polls on Saturday evening local time.


Prime Minister Haider al Abadi is facing stiff competition from parties with closer ties to Iran, which holds considerable military and economic sway in the country.

Despite overseeing the defeat of the terrorist group, whose fighters overran nearly a third of Iraqi territory just weeks after he took office in the summer of 2014, Mr Abadi has failed to emerge as the clear favourite due to entrenched corruption and an economic downturn.

Image: (L-R) Nouri al Maliki, Prime Minister Haider al Abadi and cleric Muqtada al Sadr

The downturn was partly sparked by a fall in global oil prices and the fact that the war against IS cost the Government an estimated $100bn (£73.8bn).

His strongest opponents are his predecessor, Nouri al Maliki, who was in office for eight years, and an alliance of candidates linked to the country's powerful paramilitary forces.

The alliance - known as Fatah, which is Arabic for Conquest - is led by former transport minister Hadi al Amiri, who later became a senior commander of mostly Shia fighters in the battle against IS.

Image: People show their ink-stained fingers after voting in Basra

Another strong candidate is influential cleric Muqtada al Sadr, who commanded a powerful Shia militia that battled US troops in the years after the 2003 invasion. He then mobilised the militia after IS militants swept across northern and central Iraq in the summer of 2014.

Iraq declared victory over IS in December.

Saturday's election - the fourth since Saddam Hussein was overthrown in 2003 - was conducted electronically for the first time in a bid to reduce fraud.

Polling centres were set up for many of the country's two million nationals who have been displaced by the war against IS. Iraq has a total population of just around 37 million, with 24 million eligible to vote.

Image: Iraqi security forces stand guard outside a polling station in Baghdad

The results are expected by the end of Monday, but coalition negotiations are expected to drag on for months as no single party is likely to win enough seats to hold a majority.

When the new government is formed, it will have to deal from the fallout of US President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the Iran deal, which has raised fears among Iraqis that their country could be a battleground for conflict between Washington and Tehran.