One of the most powerful pro-Iranian figures in Iraq has rejected the results of Sunday's elections as "fabricated", according to a pro-Iranian TV channel.

"We will not accept these fabricated results, whatever the cost," the channel Al-Aahd cited Hadi al-Amiri as saying on Tuesday on its Telegram messaging account, after a top Iranian military officials reportedly visited Baghdad on Monday.

Iran-backed parties with links to militia groups accused of killing some of the nearly 600 people who died in mass protests in 2019 took a blow in the election, winning less seats than in the previous vote, in 2018.

Shi'ite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's party was the biggest winner in the election held on Sunday, according to initial results.

Initial results showed Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr had won more seats than expected in Iraq’s election Sunday taking 73 seats, a spokesman of the movement said.

In a reflection of Iran’s influence in its neighbor, Iraq’s Shafaq daily Monday quoted a government source that General Esmail Ghaani, commander of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) extra-territorial al-Quds group, had met officials and leaders in Baghdad within 24 hours of polls closing to discuss next steps.

With reporting by Reuters