By Mariam Karouny
BAGHDAD, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Iraq's
dominant Shi'ite Islamist bloc is struggling to choose its candidate for
prime minister, delaying negotiations on the formation of a new government
nearly two months after the elections.
Leaders of the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) have held a series of meetings over the past three weeks to try to agree on a candidate for the top job in the new cabinet.
But divisions between the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, and the al-Dawa Party, headed by Ibrahim al-Jaafari, have only led to a stalemate, raising the possibility of an internal vote.
The alliance, which won 128 seats in the 275-member parliament in Dec. 15 polls, has four candidates for the job but Shi'ite officials say the top contenders are SCIRI's Adel Abdul Mahdi and Jaafari, the incumbent prime minister.
"There will not be a prime minister but Adel (Abdul Mahdi)," a senior official in SCIRI said, reflecting the heated competition.
There is much more at stake than unity in the alliance.
Further standoffs will delay the formation of a new government comprised mostly of Shi'ites, Kurds and Sunnis.
In a country with high sectarian tensions, it could take weeks, if not months to reach a deal on a cabinet.
"We need to know who the prime minister is before we discuss other names for other posts," a senior government official told Reuters.
Dawa officials are pinning their hopes on what they say is Jaafari's influence across several parties in the bloc, which includes supporters of popular Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who led two revolts against U.S. troops.
INTERNAL VOTE RISKY
"It is Jaafari, all indications say that the power balance is shifting towards Jaafari," said a Dawa official.
Alliance officials say they want to avoid an internal vote on a candidate for prime minister because it would suggest he failed to win broad support.
"The Alliance does not want to go to internal voting and take the consequences of such act," said Abbas Bayati, senior member in the Alliance.
"We all hope to reach a deal."
Jaafari's critics say he has failed to tackle insurgent violence, ease sectarian tension and improve the battered economy in his eight months in office as interim prime minister.
Mahdi, a vice president in the current Shi'ite-led government, was trained as an economist in Paris and is seen as a pragmatist.
He has established a reputation as a behind-the-scenes consensus builder who can navigate around Iraq's political and sectarian landmines.
Under the Iraqi constitution, the biggest bloc in the assembly has the right to nominate the prime minister, who must then form a government that requires majority approval.
Apart from Jaafari and Mahdi, two other candidates, Nadim al-Jabery, head of the Fadhila party, and Hussain al-Shahristani, a former nuclear scientist, are competing.
Some alliance officials say they don't have much of a chance but are using the negotiations to jockey for other senior posts.
Alliance sources said that the coalition, facing political pressures from other lists eager to form a government, is expected to announce its candidate on Saturday but previous meetings have failed to deliver a breakthrough.
"It is important that we know so that we know what kind of government will be formed and on what basis we should negotiate," the government official said.