Thursday, Feb 17, 2005
Members of the United Iraqi Alliance that won 48 per cent of the vote in last month's parliamentary elections are "in no hurry" to choose a new prime minister, according to a spokesman for one of the two main parties on the list.
Humam Hamoudi, representing the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri), said yesterday that Alliance member parties had chosen a 21-member administrative council, which would be responsible for allocating posts and forging a coalition with other parliamentary blocs.
"We do not feel that we are in a hurry," he said. "The main thing is to proceed in a correct manner."
The Alliance, which is dominated by Shia Islamist parties, may be waiting until after the results become official and the precise number of parliamentary seats for each bloc is known.
Farid Ayar of the Iraqi Independent Election Commission told news agencies yesterday the organisation would need to sort through at least 25 complaints that had been filed before the results were ratified. He hoped this would be done by this afternoon.
Mudhir Shawkat, a member of the Iraqi National Congress, part of the Alliance list, said the choice was down to Ahmed Chalabi of the INC and Ibrahim Ja'aferi of the Da'awa party.
Sciri declined to confirm or deny reports that its candidate, Adel Abdel Mahdi, had withdrawn.
Jawad al-Maliki, a representative of Da'awa, another party which is part of the Alliance, told journalists yesterday that the field of candidates for the premiership "was still open". Additional reporting by Awadh al-Taee
By AWADH AL-TAEE and CHARLES CLOVER
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