Iraq’s interim Prime Minister Ibrahim Jafari has guaranteed himself the premiership in the first formal government of post-Saddam Iraq after winning his bloc’s nomination by a one-vote margin on February 12.
Leaders of the Shiite-backed United Iraqi Alliance had hoped to resolve the contest between Jafari and Adil Abdul-Mahdi, a secular economist and member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, by consensus, but ended up deciding the matter with a secret ballot. The unexpected victory of Jafari is allegedly attributed in large part to the support from the popular and fiercely anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The victory of the mild-mannered religious scholar, while narrow, surprised many as his administration has been criticized for its ineffectiveness in improving security and boosting the economy. The political significance is the solidification of the dominance of the Shiite alliance, which many of its rivals had hoped would fall apart over the leadership battle.
But the following four-year tenure will be tough for the top politician in Iraq. Besides the urgent task of strengthening security and speeding up reconstruction efforts, Jafari also must deal with the frustration of Sunni Arabs who blame him for the murder and torture of alleged insurgents by the country’s Shiite-led security services, complaints of Kurds who loathe him for his war of words with Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani last year and the opposition of secular Iraqis and the United States to his advocacy for strengthened Islamic law.
At the press conference after his nomination, Jafari said he was wary of taking a job with so many perils. “The smile on my lips would have been wider if I were excused of this responsibility,” he said.
The United Iraqi Alliance is the largest political group in the 275-seat parliament elected on December 15. The legislature must still choose a presidential council, which will then approve the prime minister and his cabinet, a process that probably will take weeks.