Jaina Raf

Iraq's election commission announced that a political bloc led by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani won the most seats.

But in the Iraqi system, whoever can form the biggest coalition after voting chooses the prime minister.

So Sudani will have to persuade other parties to join him to be able to keep the job.

Sudani thanked the Iraqi people for his election win.

And he called on political parties to put the country's interests before their own.

Influential Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, whose movement gained the biggest number of seats in the last parliament, boycotted this election.

For NPR News, I'm Jaina Raf in Amman.