Via the AP: Iraqi Leaders Work to Form New Government
A French-educated finance minister and a former London physician emerged Monday as the top candidates to be Iraq’s next prime minister after the clergy-backed Shiite Muslim alliance failed to get the necessary majority of votes to control the legislature.The prominence of urbane, moderate, Western-oriented figures appeared designed to counter concern in Washington that Iran’s influence will grow in Iraq after a Shiite-dominated government takes power — even though the ultimate decision may rest with a reclusive elderly cleric.
[…]
Adel Abdul-Mahdi, the interim finance minister, and Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the interim vice president, were said to be the leading candidates for prime minister as backroom trading for the top posts in the new government began in earnest Monday.
The consultations were necessary because the United Iraqi Alliance failed to secure the two-thirds majority in the newly elected assembly that would have allowed it to control the legislature and install whomever it wanted as president.
The Kurds, who are poised to become kingmakers in the new Iraq, have already said they want Jalal Talabani, a secular Sunni Kurd and leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, to be Iraq’s next president, a largely ceremonial post. The Shiites may seek a deal with the Kurds to back Talabani for president in return for Kurdish support for their prime ministerial choice.
In contrast to WaPo and its warnings of Iranian alliances and the NYT and its hand-wringing over “weak” governments, it appears to this student of elections, parties and institutions that this situation is coming along about as well as can be expected. Certainly the behavior to this point is what one would predict to happen in a healthy multi-party system, which is a positive development.
Granted, it may yet fall apart, but it seems to be functioning as it should at the moment.
More on the elections at OTB and at Drezner’s place (both of whom discuss the coverage issue as well).