Iraq's PM Defeated, New Government Starts to Form

By Peter Sedik
Epoch Times Staff

Leader of the winning party in Iraq’s parliamentary election has begun negotiations to form the biggest bloc of seats in a bid to become the new prime minister.

Ayad Allawi, leader of the secular Iraqiya alliance, said at a news conference on Saturday that he hopes the Kurdish and Shi'ite parties will join his block to form the new government.

Mr. Allawi, whose bloc won 91 seats in the national parliament, defeated his rival State of Law Party of the current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who got 89 seats. The Iraqi National Alliance (INA) ended up third with 70 seats, followed by the Kurdistan Alliance with 43.

However, Prime Minister Maliki has not yet accepted the election results, saying that he plans to file a legal appeal due to the allegation of fraud in the polls. The U.N. and U.S. envoys to Iraq said the elections were credible.

Mr. Maliki is also negotiating the merger with the Iraqi National Alliance, with the intention that the newly formed bloc could earn the right to form a government first. Iraq's Supreme Court responded to Mr. Maliki’s query on Thursday, saying that the “largest Council of Representatives bloc,” as mentioned in the constitution, could include an alliance formed after the election.

Iraqiya Party can also lose some of its candidates, since the officials responsible for clearing the government of the former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party are planning to disqualify 52 candidates, most of them from the Mr. Allawi’s bloc.

Although the two leading parties could have a majority in the Council of Representative’s 325 seats to form a government, this scenario is very unlikely. Mr. Allawi expects that his bloc Iraqiya will form an alliance with Kurdish parties, who already confirmed that they entered into the negotiations.

However, to secure the prime minister post, Iraqiya will have to find additional partners, as even with the Kurds they will still fall short of having the majority of seats.

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/32287/.