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| Iraq |
| Iraqiya seeks to form gov't after recount |
| 2010-05-18 |
| Sunni vice president said on Monday that the cross-sectarian Iraqiya coalition he belongs to was more determined than ever to claim the right to form the next government. The chances that Iraqiya, led by former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, will get a chance to form a government are diminishing, potentially angering minority Sunnis who backed it, and fuelling a slide back into broader sectarian warfare. Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi said, however, that a manual recount of votes cast in Baghdad which kept intact Iraqiya's two-seat win in the March 7 election, gave the coalition the right to form the government and name a prime minister. “After the announcement of the manual recount of votes, we in Iraqiya are more determined than ever to claim our right to form the coming government,' Hashemi told Reuters. “It is our constitutional and electoral right to form the government and to name the prime minister,' he said in an interview. Allawi's chances of becoming prime minister are slim following the announcement of an alliance between Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's party and another major Shi'ite coalition, which would form the biggest bloc in parliament. While Allawi has insisted the election win gives him the first right to form a new government, the union of Maliki's State of Law bloc with the Iran-friendly Iraqi National Alliance, the third-place finisher, could sideline him. It places the Shi'ite factions that have dominated Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion just four seats short of a governing majority and they are reaching out to minority Kurds to bring them into their fold. “To be extremely frank, we in Iraqiya are now more united than ever. All bargaining positions made to tempt some groups inside Iraqiya have failed. There is no way today to break up the Iraqiya list,' Hashemi said. “I know that politics means being wise, flexible and able to bargain, especially in a situation like Iraq's. But even so this will not change our belief that we, constitutionally, have the right to form the government and name the prime minister. And our candidate is Iyad Allawi.' |
| Posted by:Steve White |