Iraqi Shiite coalition may choose new prime minister today

Member of the United Iraqi Coalition List, Abbas al-Bayati, said that members of the list agreed to make a decisive voting today to choose their candidates for the post of the prime minister, if the current talks will fail to appoint a prime minister among from among four candidates.

Al-Bayati said that members of the list will intensify during today's voting their consultation in order to reach a consensus. He explained that the list will resort to a voting mechanism and to remove the name which gets the least support if the members will not reach consensus. This may strengthen the hand of the list holding majority members.

The four candidates for the post of the prime minister are the current prime minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the leader of the Islamic Dawa ( call) party, Adel Abdul Mahdi from the higher council of the Islamic revolution in Iraq, Nadin al-Jabiri from al-Fadila party and Hussein al-Shahristani from the independents bloc.

Members of the United Iraqi Coalition List reached 128, in addition to two members from the list of the Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sader.

Meantime, official sources said that Iraqi forces discussed the formation of a consultation council including heads of the winning lists in the legislative elections in order to express their views in all the course of events in Iraq.

Member of the Kurdistani Coalition List Mahmoud Othman said "not all blocs have a space in the Presidential council or in the cabinet presidium and therefore the formation of this council will give them the space to express their views freely."