Nouri Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister has been warning against what he calls an attempted coup through ballot boxes.<br /><br />He is happy with a recount ordered by the country's electoral commission, a process due to begin on Monday and last two weeks.<br /><br />However, many fear that the intervening political vacuum could provoke more sectarian and religious division.<br /><br />In the latest attack, eight people were killed and 20 others wounded on Thursday when a car bomb exploded near an alcohol store in Baghdad, according to an interior ministry official.<br /><br />A symbol of Iraq's sectarian divide is the Imam's bridge in Baghdad, which links the Sunni Muslim neighbourhood of Adhamiya to the Shia Muslim district of Kadhimiya.<br /><br />Five years ago the bridge was closed after 1,000 people were killed in a stampede during a Shia Muslim procession. The crowd had panicked after rumours of a suicide bomber.<br /><br />The bridge was reopened in December 2008 and Iraqis hope it will remain open to symbolise the peaceful coexistence they are trying to build.<br /><br />Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna reports from Baghdad.
