BAGHDAD, Iraq - Members of the winning Shiite political alliance gathered at the home of the ticket leader to discuss the new government today, as the Iraqi election commission prepared to certify the final results of the race.

Leading candidate Ibrahim al-Jaafari visited Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the alliance's leader, at his office in Baghdad to discuss the pending announcement of the alliance's candidate to be prime minister. Shortly after he left, his main rival, former Pentagon favorite Ahmad Chalabi, arrived for talks.

The race to be the Shiite's pick for prime minister narrowed Tuesday, when Adel Abdul Mahdi, who has close ties to Iran, dropped out.

A close aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who almost guaranteed the United Iraqi Alliance's victory when he endorsed it, said that "the grand cleric has the final say" as to who will be the candidate.

The aide, speaking on condition he not be named, said the alliance's leaders will visit al-Sistani's office in Najaf to get his blessing for their choice for prime minister, or in the event they can't agree, al-Sistani will make the final decision.

Al-Hakim, a Shiite cleric with close ties to Iran, has said he is not interested in the prime minister's post.

The closed door meetings came as the Iraqi Electoral Commission's deadline to file complaints approached.

Farid Ayar, the spokesman for the commission, said there have been 25 complaints.

"Most of them are asking for a recount of the votes and we are looking into those requests," he said. "We tell them that we were very accurate in counting the ballots. You know, they just want more votes."

He said he expected the commission to certify the vote totals Thursday afternoon, when the official allocation of seats in the 275-member National Assembly would also be announced. The assembly will pick the president, two vice presidents and draft a new constitution.

Once the results are certified, the present government must set a timetable for installing the new government. There have been no indications on how long that might take, and will depend on back-room dealmaking among the parties.

The clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance scooped 48 percent of the vote for the National Assembly, the Kurdish alliance took 26 percent and Allawi, a secular Shiite who supported strong ties to Washington, won only 14 percent. Nine other parties also won seats in the assembly.

Al-Jaafari, a 58-year-old moderate Shiite Muslim politician who fled a brutal crackdown by Saddam Hussein in 1980, said Tuesday in an exclusive Associated Press interview that he wanted a constitution that will draw not only on Islam.

"Islam should be the official religion of the country, and one of the main sources for legislation, along with other sources that do not harm Muslim sensibilities," said al-Jaafari, who currently serves as Iraq's interim vice president and was living in London until Saddam's regime was overthrown.

He said he supports women's rights, including the right to be the president or prime minister, as well as self-determination and individual freedoms for all Iraqis.

Al-Jaafari said that if he is confirmed as prime minister, he would first try to stymie the violence that has crippled the country's recovery from decades of war and hardship.