| BAGHDAD: Iraqâs interim Governing Council named yesterday Ibrahim Jafari of the Shiite Dawa party as the US-approved bodyâs first president, a Kurdish official announced. Jafari, the Dawa spokesman, was chosen to be the councilâs president based on his name being the first alphabetically among the nine council members who will share the rotating presidency, Barham Saleh of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan said. âThere was a consensus on the alphabetical order. It was the best solution,â said Saleh of the presidency, which will change monthly. Jafari will be followed as president by two fellow Shiites, who count a 60 per cent majority in Iraq: the Pentagon-backed Ahmed Chalabi and Iyad Allawi, a former Baathist and longtime member of the exiled opposition. The line-up of rotating presidents includes five Shiites, two Sunnis and two Kurdish members of the 25-strong council, reflecting Iraqâs ethnic diversity. Saleh said US overseer Paul Bremer and the top British official in Iraq, John Sawers, attended the session of the council. The council, which is tasked with skippering Iraq until democratic elections no earlier than 2004, had to avoid aggravating the countryâs ethnic and religious fault lines in making the delicate decision. |