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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Top Shiite politicians
failed to reach a consensus Wednesday on their
nominee for prime minister, shifting the two-man
race to a secret ballot and exposing divisions in
the winning alliance. In a chilling reminder of
challenges facing the winner, a videotape showed a
sobbing Italian hostage pleading for her life.
After hours of closed-door meetings, members of the
United Iraqi Alliance agreed to hold a secret ballot
to choose between Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Ahmad
Chalabi, most likely on Friday, said Ali Hashim al-Youshaa,
one of the alliance's leaders.
Meanwhile, Iraq's electoral commission is expected
to certify results from the country's Jan. 30
elections and allocate seats Thursday for the new
275-member National Assembly, officials said.
Electoral Commission official Adel al-Lami the
results would be announced at a press conference in
Baghdad.
The contrast between the two candidates is stark and
reveals a division within the clergy-endorsed
alliance, made up of 10 major political parties and
various allied smaller groups.
Al-Jaafari, 58, is the leader of the religious Dawa
Party, one of Iraq's oldest parties, known for its
popularity and close ties to Iran. Although al-Jaafari
is a moderate, his party's platform is conservative.
Chalabi, 58, who left Iraq as a teen, leads the
Iraqi National Congress and had close ties to the
Pentagon before falling out of favor last year after
claims he passed intelligence information to Iran.
A secular Shiite, Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress
is an umbrella for groups that included Iraqi
exiles, Kurds and Shiites. Much of the intelligence
his group supplied on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass
destruction programs failed to pan out.
Al-Jaafari was considered the leading contender
Wednesday, though Chalabi's aides said their man had
enough votes to win.
Both candidates were expected to present their
political agendas to alliance members before the
secret vote, al-Youshaa said. The 140 lawmakers who
will represent the alliance in the National
Assembly, plus eight allied lawmakers, will decide
who will be prime minister, al-Youshaa said.
A close aide to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the
spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiite Muslims, said the
alliance's leaders will visit the grand ayatollah's
office in Najaf to get his blessing for their choice
for prime minister. In the event they can't agree,
al-Sistani will make the final decision, said the
aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The alliance took 48 percent of the vote in the Jan.
30 national elections, but a two-thirds majority of
the assembly is required for the most important
decisions, including selection of a prime minister.
Kurdish parties, who won 26 percent, have apparently
agreed to support the alliance's candidate for prime
minister in return for the largely ceremonial
presidency.
Sunni Arabs, who were favored under Saddam Hussein's
rule, largely stayed away from the polls. But the
Shiites must move cautiously if they want to reach
out to the Sunnis to form an inclusive government
and help quell a violent insurgency.
A U.S. soldier assigned to the 1st Marine
Expeditionary Force was killed in action Tuesday in
western Iraq, a soldier died of a non-combat injury
Wednesday at a base near Tikrit, and four soldiers
died in vehicle accidents, the military announced.
In addition, the bodies of eight Iraqis described as
collaborators with U.S. forces were found in a
desert area north of Baghdad.
The case of the captive Italian journalist took an
alarming turn Wednesday, as a videotape delivered
anonymously to Associated Press Television News
showed Giuliana Sgrena speaking in both French and
Italian as she pleaded for the Italian government to
withdraw its troops.
``You must end the occupation, it's the only way we
can get out of this situation,'' the 56-year-old
journalist for the communist daily Il Manifesto
pleaded. There was no indication when the tape was
made, and the words ``Mujahedeen Without Borders''
appeared in digital red Arabic script on the video.
The group was previously unknown.
The video was released hours before the Italian
Senate voted to extend Italy's troop deployment
through June. Il Manifesto strongly opposed the
U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and has fiercely
criticized Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi's
decision to deploy 3,000 troops in the U.S.-led
multinational force in Iraq.
At one point Sgrena broke into tears on the
videotape, saying: ``Show all the pictures I have
taken of the Iraqis, of the children hit by the
cluster bombs, of the women. ... Help me, help me to
demand the withdrawal of the troops, help me spare
my life.''
Sgrena was kidnapped Feb. 4 by gunmen outside a
mosque in Baghdad. Conflicting claims about her fate
have appeared on Islamic militant Web sites.
In an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press,
al-Jaafari said quelling the violence would be his
first priority if he becomes prime minister, and
that he would ask U.S. troops to stay as long as
they are needed. Despite the Dawa Party's stated
desire to impose Islamic law in Iraq, al-Jaafari
said he supports guarantees for individual freedoms
and women's rights.
Chalabi has promised to cancel contracts the interim
government has signed, form a strong intelligence
service, and drop charges against Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr, who led two bloody revolts against
U.S. forces and is wanted for the murder of a rival
cleric, said Ali Faisal of the Shiite Political
Council.
Nevertheless, Hayder al-Mousawi, Chalabi's
spokesman, said the differences were not a major
problem for the Shiite alliance.
``No way is there a division inside the alliance.
Everybody agreed on adhering to whatever results the
internal elections will reach,'' he said.
If provisional results of the election stand, the
alliance will have 140 seats in the 275-member
National Assembly. Al-Youshaa said three other party
coalitions, who won a combined eight seats, have
joined the alliance bloc.
Farid Ayar, spokesman for the electoral commission,
said there have been 25 complaints about the
election. ``Most of them are asking for a recount of
the votes and we are looking into those requests,''
he said. ``You know, they just want more votes.''
He said he expected the commission to certify the
vote totals Thursday, when the official allocation
of seats in the National Assembly would also be
announced. The assembly will pick the president, two
vice presidents and draft a constitution.
Once results are certified, the present government
must set a timetable for installing the new
government. There have been no indication how long
that might take.
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