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Shiites fail to name prime minister nominee

Supporters of Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the Shiite alliance's leader, hold aloft his portrait outside his office in Baghdad, Iraq on Wednesday. Leaders of the winning Shiite political alliance failed to agree on a single nominee for prime minister. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Maggie Michael Associated Press
Supporters of Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the Shiite alliance's leader, hold aloft his portrait outside his office in Baghdad, Iraq on Wednesday. Leaders of the winning Shiite political alliance failed to agree on a single nominee for prime minister. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Top Shiite politicians failed to reach a consensus Wednesday on their nominee for prime minister, shifting the two-man race to a secret ballot and exposing divisions in the winning alliance. In a chilling reminder of challenges facing the winner, a videotape showed a sobbing Italian hostage pleading for her life.

After hours of closed-door meetings, members of the United Iraqi Alliance agreed to hold a secret ballot to choose between Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Ahmad Chalabi, most likely on Friday, said Ali Hashim al-Youshaa, one of the alliance’s leaders.

The contrast between the two candidates is stark and reveals a division within the clergy-endorsed alliance, made up of 10 major political parties and various allied smaller groups.

Al-Jaafari, 58, is the leader of the religious Dawa Party, one of Iraq’s oldest parties, known for its popularity and close ties to Iran. Although al-Jaafari is a moderate, his party’s platform is conservative.

Chalabi, 58, who left Iraq as a teen, leads the Iraqi National Congress and had close ties to the Pentagon before falling out of favor last year after claims he passed intelligence information to Iran.

Al-Jaafari was considered the leading contender Wednesday, though Chalabi’s aides said their man had enough votes to win.

Both candidates were expected to present their political agendas to alliance members before the secret vote, al-Youshaa said. The 140 lawmakers who will represent the alliance in the National Assembly, plus eight allied lawmakers, will decide who will be prime minister, al-Youshaa said.

The alliance took 48 percent of the vote in the Jan. 30 national elections, but a two-thirds majority of the assembly is required for the most important decisions, including selection of a prime minister.

Elsewhere in Iraq, a U.S. soldier assigned to the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force was killed in action Tuesday in western Iraq, a soldier died of a non-combat injury Wednesday at a base near Tikrit, and four soldiers died in vehicle accidents, the military announced.

In addition, the bodies of eight Iraqis described as collaborators with U.S. forces were found in a desert area north of Baghdad.

The case of the captive Italian journalist took an alarming turn Wednesday, as a videotape delivered anonymously to Associated Press Television News showed Giuliana Sgrena speaking in both French and Italian as she pleaded for the Italian government to withdraw its troops.

“You must end the occupation, it’s the only way we can get out of this situation,” the 56-year-old journalist for the communist daily Il Manifesto pleaded. There was no indication when the tape was made, and the words “Mujahedeen Without Borders” appeared in digital red Arabic script on the video. The group was previously unknown.

The video was released hours before the Italian Senate voted to extend Italy’s troop deployment through June.