Allawi meets VP al-Jaafari, possible PM after elections

(21 Feb 2005) SHOTLIST 1. Wide of meeting between Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and Vice President Ibrahim al-Jaafari 2. Al-Jaafari, pan to Allawi 3. Al-Jaafari 4. Al-Jaafari and Allawi walking down steps to meet reporters 5. Allawi talking to media 6. Allawi and Al-Jaafari shaking hands 7. Both walking off STORYLINE Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi met Vice-President Ibrahim al-Jaafari on Monday as members of the Shiite political group that emerged as the power broker after last month''s elections haggled over who to nominate for the top job in Iraq''s new government. Meeting in central Baghdad, groups represented in the clergy-backed United Iraqi Alliance failed to whittle down their candidates for Prime-Minister from two to one. Instead, they had to deal with the emergence of a third candidate. To deal with the problem, representatives of the Shiite Islamic Dawa Party, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), the Iraqi National Congress and several other political parties formed a 21-member selection committee to decide on just two nominees. Those two candidates will then face a secret ballot among the 140 members of the Alliance elected to the 275-member National Assembly in the Jan. 30 elections. That ballot will probably take place on Tuesday. The Alliance received 48 per cent of the vote and won 140 seats. But a two-thirds majority - 182 seats - is needed to confirm the next president, two vice-presidents, the prime-minister and his cabinet. The presidential posts are largely ceremonial and the true power lies with the prime minister. After deciding early Monday to form the selection committee, the Alliance seemed to be split into three distinct camps. One believed that former Washington favourite Ahmad Chalabi, a secular Shiite, would win a majority of votes if a secret ballot takes place. The second camp considered conservative Islamic Dawa Party leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari - considered by many Iraqis to be a cleric in a business suit - as the undisputed nominee. A third camp led by SCIRI leader and cleric Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim reportedly asked Chalabi to step aside in favour of interim Finance Minister Abdel Abdul-Mahdi, a secular candidate who decided last week not to go for the job. According to Ali Faisal of the Shiite Political Council, which encompasses 38 Shiite political groups, al-Hakim prefers Abdul-Mahdi over both Chalabi and al-Jaafari. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives ​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/be2b4b10cba10521d06e282b8f773ff4

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