IRAQ: Leaders of the Shia political alliance that won Iraq's election failed to agree on a single nominee for prime minister yesterday. The two candidates insisted on a vote by the alliance's 140 MPs, officials said.
After meeting for hours with Shia cleric and politician Mr Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, members of the United Iraqi Alliance agreed to hold a secret ballot to choose between two former exiles, Dr Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Mr Ahmad Chalabi. The vote is expected tomorrow.
Both candidates were expected to present their political agendas and priorities to alliance members before the vote. The failure to reach a consensus revealed cracks within the coalition, which consists of 10 major parties backed by Shia religious leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. But Mr Hayder al-Mousawi, Mr Chalabi's spokesman, denied there was a serious problem.
"No way is there a division inside the alliance. Everybody agreed on adhering to whatever results the internal elections will reach," he said.
Dr Al-Jaafari (58), a moderate Shia Muslim who fled into London exile during a brutal crackdown by Saddam Hussein in 1980, said he wanted a constitution that would draw not only on Islam.
"Islam should be the official religion of the country, and one of the main sources for legislation, along with other sources that do not harm Muslim sensibilities," said Dr al-Jaafari, who currently serves as Iraq's interim vice-president and was living in London until Saddam's regime was overthrown.
The former hospital doctor said he supported women's rights, including the right to be the president or prime minister, as well as self-determination and individual freedoms for all Iraqis.
Dr Al-Jaafari said that if confirmed as prime minister, he would first try to bring an end to the violence that has crippled the country's recovery from decades of war and hardship, following the overthrow of Saddam.
Mr Chalabi (58) leads the Iraqi National Congress and had close ties to the Pentagon before falling out of favour last year after claims that he passed intelligence information to Iran, where he lived as a youth.
A secular Shia, his Iraqi National Congress is an umbrella for groups that included Iraqi exiles, Kurds and Shias.
Much of the intelligence his group supplied on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction programmes turned out to be false.
North of Baghdad yesterday, police found the bound bodies of eight Iraqis, mostly civilians who had worked at a US military base, in shallow graves. All were shot in the back of the head. They were kidnapped three days ago.
An Italian journalist kidnapped in Baghdad appeared on video yesterday, pleading for her life and urging US-led forces to quit Iraq. Giuliana Sgrena begged her family to put pressure on the Italian government to secure her release and warned foreigners to steer clear of the country.