Baghdad , Iraq ( CNN ) -- Former Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari has won a non-binding vote that could influence the decision on who will be the country 's next prime minister , an official in the office of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said Wednesday . Tens of thousands took part in the vote last week in tents set up on the streets of Baghdad and some some southern provinces . The vote was called by al-Sadr , who has refused to back the top vote-getters in the March 7 election and wanted his followers to designate a prime minister of their choosing . Al-Jaafari won 24 percent of the votes in last week 's balloting , the official in al-Sadr 's office said . Current Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki won 10 percent , and former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi won 9 percent , the official said . Allawi aims to quickly form Iraqi government . The results play no official role in deciding who governs Iraq , but it means al-Jaafari will be the person that the al-Sadr bloc is committed to supporting as the next prime minister . March 's election produced extremely close election results and the final outcome is still uncertain . Allawi 's Iraqiya bloc won 91 seats , a razor-thin victory over al-Maliki 's State of the Law coalition , which gained 89 seats , according to the provisional results . At least 163 seats are needed to form a government . As a result of being at the top of the balloting , both Allawi and al-Maliki are working to form coalition governments and are reaching out to entities like al-Sadr 's group . Al-Sadr 's party , which gained at least 39 seats in the voting , is a member of the Iraqi National Alliance , the Shiite bloc that received 70 seats . CNN 's Yousif Bassil contributed to this report .
Unofficial vote called by radical Iraqi cleric Ibrahim al-Jaafari . He wanted his followers to designate a prime minister of their choosing . Ibrahim al-Jaafari won 10 percent of the votes in March 7 balloting . The results play no official role in deciding who governs Baghdad .