Shiite is Iraq's prime minister; constitution next

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Shiite Muslim politician Ibrahim al-Jaafari yesterday became Iraq's first prime minister chosen through a democratic process.

Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani named al-Jaafari, 58, to the post after Talabani was sworn in as the first non-Arab president of the predominantly Arab nation.

The presidency is largely a ceremonial job; the prime minister wields more power. Al-Jaafari's principal responsibility will be to oversee the drafting of a permanent constitution by Aug. 15 and to prepare the country for fresh elections by the end of the year. Drafting the constitution in a fashion that protects the interests of Iraq's often-feuding ethnic groups — including the disaffected Sunni Muslim minority — while ensuring national unity promises to be an immense challenge.

The pair's arrival to the halls of power represents a historic reversal for their ethnic groups, often relegated to prisons, exile or rebel redoubts by former dictator Saddam Hussein, a Sunni who filled top jobs with close relatives and members of his Tikriti clan.

Talabani's inauguration and al-Jaafari's nomination yesterday, held under television lights in a grubby, U.S. military-guarded hall that the new administration already has voted to abandon, marked the most significant recent political milestone for Iraq.

In the next two weeks, political blocs are to fill ministries for oil, security and other top cabinet posts. More than 30 positions are being rationed out painstakingly among the now-dominant Shiite majority, Sunni Arabs, the Kurds (who also are Sunnis) and secularists.

What's next for Iraq's government


Choosing a new cabinet

The prime minister has one month to recommend his Council of Ministers, or Cabinet, to the President's Council. The prime minister and President's Council will then seek a vote of confidence by a simple majority from the National Assembly before starting their work as a government. If the prime minister does not nominate the ministers within one month, the President's Council would name a new prime minister.

Drafting a new constitution

The assembly's most important task will be drafting a permanent constitution. Parliament must write the draft by Aug. 15. If it fails to meet that deadline, it can request a six-month extension.

Referendum on new constitution

Iraqis must vote on the proposed constitution in a referendum by Oct. 15. It must be ratified by a two-thirds majority of voters.

Next elections

If the constitution is approved, elections for a permanent government will be held by Dec. 15, and the new parliament and government must assume office by Dec. 31. If voters reject the constitution, the National Assembly will be dissolved and a new transitional assembly and government will be elected in December to work on a constitution.

The Associated Press

Talabani made no mention of al-Jaafari or his appointment as prime minister during his inaugural address. After the assembly adjourned and television cameras left the room, Talabani hastily returned to the podium to announce that he had asked al-Jaafari to form a government.

Colleagues say Talabani simply forgot, but some Shiite assembly members grumbled that it might have been an intentional slight, reflecting hard-fought negotiations between Shiites and Kurds in recent weeks.

In his speech, Talabani repeated the themes of national unity that the National Assembly, elected two months ago, has sounded while fighting behind closed doors to parcel out key posts and ministries among Iraq's three major ethnic groups.

Sunnis, viewed as the backbone of the insurgency, make up 20 percent of Iraq's population but hold only 17 of the 275 National Assembly seats. The Kurds hold 75, though they too account for 20 percent of Iraqis. Many Sunnis stayed home from the Jan. 30 elections out of protest or fears for their safety in violence-wracked regions.

Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, who was appointed last year by U.S. occupation authorities, resigned yesterday, although he'll stay on for a week or two in a caretaker role, until al-Jaafari appoints his cabinet.

Al-Jaafari is a leader of the Dawa Party, an Islamist group banned by Saddam that once claimed responsibility for an attempt to assassinate Saddam's eldest son, Odai. Saddam's regime executed several of the party's leaders.

Today it's part of the United Iraqi Alliance, the bloc that rode the blessings of Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani to a slight majority in the assembly.

Al-Jaafari grew up in the southern town of Karbala — in the shadow of the resting place of Shiite martyr Imam Hussein — and attended medical school in Mosul. He joined the Dawa Party, which at the time called for overthrowing Iraq's secular regime in favor of an Islamic state, in high school and was an undercover operative in his college days. The party engaged in tit-for-tat violence with Saddam during the 1970s, and al-Jaafari fled the country for Iran in 1980, then England. When he left Iraq, he took the name al-Jaafari for fear that his family name, al Eshaiker, would make it possible for Saddam's security forces to follow him.

Al-Jaafari's public comments recently have called for national unity, and he's avoided any direct comment on his earlier advocacy of an Islamic state. His appointment has nonetheless raised fears among some Sunnis and Kurds that he may still wish to move Iraq in that direction.

Information from The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times is included in this report.