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Shi'ites fail to nominate Iraq PM again

Posted on: Saturday, 11 February 2006, 07:23 CST

By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's ruling Islamist Shi'ite alliance failed to pick a candidate for prime minister again in talks on Saturday, with rivalries delaying negotiations on forming a government nearly two months after elections.

A senior official in the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) said earlier that the grouping was expected to nominate Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi to lead the first full-term government after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

But Saturday's talks dashed expectations that Abdul Mahdi, a leader in the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), would stand as the alliance's candidate and ease what appears to be an internal crisis in the alliance.

As the party with the biggest bloc in parliament after winning 128 of the 275 seats, the alliance will be asked by the next president to name a prime minister, to be approved by a simple parliamentary majority, under the Iraqi constitution.

UIA leaders told a news conference that talks would resume on Sunday and officials would resort to a vote if a candidate is not chosen, a move that would expose divisions.

"The delay came because we are eager to safeguard the unity of the alliance behind its nominee," said Jawad al-Maliki, a leader of the Dawa party, which along with SCIRI and other Shi'ite parties forms the Shi'ite bloc.

"If this is not achieved tomorrow we will resort to voting."

Maliki said most of the parties who requested a delay backed Dawa leader and incumbent Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari for the top job in government.

RADICAL CLERIC KEY PLAYER

Radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's party in the alliance, a bitter rival of SCIRI, did not arrive when the talks started, in what alliance officials said was protest against Abdul Mahdi, a former finance minister who is seen as a pragmatist.

Sadr, who led two revolts against U.S. and Iraqi troops, has emerged as a kingmaker in Iraq's volatile sectarian politics.

The alliance's failure to reach a consensus on the candidate for prime minister will delay the monumental task at hand for the new government -- delivering stability to Iraqis after nearly three years of bloodshed.

Formal negotiations have not started nearly two months after December 15 elections and judging by talks after a poll in January last year, the process could take months in a country people want results, not endless promises.

Jaafari's critics say he has failed in the fight against the insurgency. Arab Sunnis accuse his Shi'ite-run Interior Ministry of sanctioning death squads, a charge his government denies.

The battered economy of a major oil producer shows no signs of recovering from a Sunni guerrilla campaign that has killed many thousands of Iraqi security forces and civilians.

Born in Baghdad in 1942, Abdul Mahdi began his career as a political activist, leading to torture, a death sentence and years of exile in France, where he studied in Paris.

He was repeatedly jailed for opposition activities in the 1960s, before the Iraqi government stripped him of his job and passport in 1969, a year after the Baath party took power, ushering in decades of dominance by Saddam Hussein.

An economist, he has earned a reputation as a consensus builder, a trait that could be useful if he becomes prime minister of a new government that Washington hopes will unite all sects and enable U.S. troops to go home.

Source: REUTERS

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