Iraq to name Shiite prime minister

Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a prominent Shiite Arab, is expected to be named as Iraq’s prime minister today, taking the most powerful post in the country’s first democratically-elected government in 50 years and opening the way to picking a Cabinet.

Iraq’s new government finally began to take shape yesterday, two months after elections, when politicians elected as president a Kurdish leader who promised to represent all ethnic and religious groups.

Ousted dictator Saddam Hussein watched the session, broadcast across the country, from his prison cell.

Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani was chosen for the largely ceremonial job of president, while Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite, and current interim President Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab, were elected vice presidents.

Talabani’s selection and the expected choice of al-Jaafari as prime minister further consolidate the power shift in Iraq, where both the Shiite Arab majority and the Kurdish minority were oppressed, often brutally, under Saddam’s Sunni-dominated regime.

Talabani, 71, reached out to all sectors of the country, appealing for them to join with fellow Iraqis who are working “to found a new Iraq, free of sectarian and ethnic persecution, free of hegemony and oppression.”

He also urged Iraqi rebels, who are believed to be mostly Sunni Arabs, to sit down and talk with the new government.

US president George Bush called yesterday’s session a “momentous step forward in Iraq’s transition to democracy”.

“The Iraqi people have shown their commitment to democracy and we, in turn, are committed to Iraq,” the president said in a statement. “We look forward to working with this new government, and we congratulate all Iraqis on this historic day.”

Saddam and 11 of his top aides were given the choice of watching a tape of the National Assembly session in their prison and all chose to do so, said Bakhtiar Amin, human rights minister in the outgoing interim government.

Amin said Saddam watched by himself, while the others viewed it as a group at their undisclosed detention centre, which is believed to be near Baghdad’s airport.

“I imagine he was upset,” Amin said. “He must have realised that the era of his government was over, and that there was no way he was returning to office.”

Iraq’s new presidential council, made up of the president and his two deputies, is to be sworn in today. The three are then expected to immediately name the prime minister.

MPs can then start to draft a permanent constitution, which is supposed to be finished by August 15.

Among the touchiest issues that remain are whether the oil city of Kirkuk should be part of the autonomous Kurdish region, what role Islam should play in Iraq’s governmental system and who will be named defence minister.

Negotiators had agreed on Talabani for the president’s job weeks ago, but news of his formal election was greeted with dancing in the streets of the Kurdish north.

“Today Jalal Talabani made it to the seat of power, while Saddam Hussein is sitting in jail,” said Mohammed Saleh, a 42-year-old Kurd in Kirkuk. “Who would have thought!”

When the results were announced, legislators swarmed around Talabani, hugging and kissing him. Members gave him a standing ovation and tears welled up in the eyes of some Kurdish MPs and Talabani’s relatives attending the session.

“This is the new Iraq,” said parliament speaker Hajim al-Hassani, a Sunni Arab.

Kurds make up about 20% of Iraq’s 26 million people, and won 75 of the 275 seats in parliament. A Shiite alliance holds 140 seats.

Sunni Arabs, who make up 15% to 20% of the population, have only 17 seats, largely because they boycotted the election or stayed home out of fear of attacks.