Iraqi PM Allawi could cling to office dispite criticism

[ECH1969]

Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi faces widespread criticism of his time in office, yet the tought talking US-backed leader is a survivor who could still ride out the storm.

His Iraqi National Accord list is expected to be amoung the top three groups when the could from the historic election is finished.

As Iraqi politicians haggle over the make-up of the new transitional government, Allawi remains a likely compromise candidate to lead a coalition administration dominated by Shiites but also including Kurds and his INA.

"Several brothers have put pressure on me to continue," Allawi said this week.

http://tinylink.com/?flD1L1wiVe

and here is another article telling how the fights in the UIA could give Allawi the PM job again. Talk about a messed up way of picking your leaders.

http://tinylink.com/?v0C26WlDvA

[Zynx]

1. This is a bit out of date

This conventional wisdom dates to before the returns started coming in and it became obvious his "Iraqi List" was going to be a distant third.

There is no way he is going to be PM now.

[ECH1969]

2. Actually no it isn't out of date

It was just posted an hour ago. There is alot of fighting within the UIA and they have three candidates and are fighting amoungst themselves. One of the most religious Shia "Hakim" started a stop Allawi movement amoung the hard core religious Shia and he was the one that was in all the AP interviews that made CW in the US think Allawi hasn't a chance in hell. But, you have to look deeper into the situation as the second link does, which shows that the UIA is so fractured it may not be able to decide on one candidate in which case Allawi wins by defult. Basically, it just means that everything is still very much up in the air.

[Junkdrawer]

3. Check out this map....

http://www.stripes.com/mideast/graphics/ethnic.html

Now, I'm told that the Sunnis and the Kurds will be proportionally represented, regardless of how many voted.

That means that if the Shia are split (with a little help from a friendly US-assisted count of the votes), Allawi could still rule with a winning coalition.

The election is over a week old, and I'm still waiting to see how this plays out.