An Iraqi court has ordered a partial recount of votes cast in the March 7 parliamentary elections, which could erase the lead of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, shown after speaking to the press in Baghdad last week. Allawi says he won’t acknowledge results of the recount unless it is extended to other areas of the country. Nearly two months after the vote, Iraq’s March 7 parliamentary election is still up in the air. Former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s electoral bloc got two more seats than that of incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. But just as that result was to be confirmed, an Iraqi judge last week ordered a recount in Baghdad — which could erase Allawi’s lead. In an exclusive interview with NPR, Ayad Allawi has threatened to reject the court’s decision, throwing the formation of Iraq’s government even further into doubt. Allawi is an avuncular 65-year-old medical doctor whose smile is often compared to that of TV gangster Tony Soprano. In 1971, he left Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party for exile in London — a separation later confirmed when a man, presumed to be an Iraqi agent, attacked Allawi with an axe, nearly killing him. […]