| Begging your indulgence, I'd like to rewrite AFP's lame headline: |
"al-Zarqawi tries and fails to distract attention away from historic democratic process in the heart of Arabia, also ensures infidel army will stay put and kick his ass some more. Insh'allah." | Ah, that feels much better. |
 Iraq's new parliament has elected a Sunni Muslim speaker, ending two months of bitter sectarian wrangling. On Sunday, MPs chose Sunni Arab Hajem al-Hassani as speaker and Shiite Hussein al-Shahrastani and Kurd Aref Tayfur as his two deputies, after their initial attempt ended in shambles last Tuesday when 16 Sunni Arab MPs refused to back the Shiites' preferred candidate for speaker. The vote came even as parliament's Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni blocs remained far from agreement on a new governing coalition amid intense jockeying over the cabinet line-up, more than two months after the historic elections. | So they're giving up and going home then, right? Er, no: |
The meeting unfolded in a giddy schoolyard-like atmosphere as dozens of MPs mingled and walked to the front of the assembly to vote inside Baghdad's fortified administrative enclave. Results were marked on two whiteboards. But the mood was undercut by the fact that Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish MPs largely voted along sectarian lines, with many deputies voting for only one of the posts and not all three. | The horror. Elected representatives voting their conscience. Truly, we're done for! |
Just 241 of the parliament's 275 MPs attended the session but those that did grinned and whistled to each other as they cast their ballots. | Fred loaned me his abacus, plus the square root of 17, and I figger nearly 88% of Parliament showed up for the party. But apparently it's not legit unless all 275 show up at bayonet point and vote in lockstep, just like the good old days under Uncle Sammy. |
Hassani, a member of outgoing president Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar's Iraqiun list, served in the interim government as industry minister and broke with his old associates, the Islamic Party, last November over its position on the US-led offensive in Fallujah. Shahrastani, a nuclear scientist and Shiite moderate, spent a decade in the prisons of Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime over his refusal to work on Iraq's atomic weapons programmes. Tayfur is a member of the politburo of the Kurdistan Democratic Party and a veteran rebel fighter. Hassani was drafted in as an 11th-hour compromise acceptable to both sides after Shiites objected to Sunni Arab MP Mishaan al-Juburi, citing his alleged links to Saddam's regime. "Against all odds, Iraqis voted despite the absence, or the intentional sidelining, of an important segment of society," said Hassani in his acceptance speech, referring to Sunni Arab voters who largely boycotted the election. MPs adjourned until Wednesday when Hassani said they would focus on electing a president and two vice presidents, who will in turn formally nominate the prime minister and his cabinet. But the UIA's candidate for the premiership Ibrahim al-Jafaari hinted there were still disagreements over the new government line-up despite optimism from others in his alliance. "There is disagreement and I hope there would be disagreement because this is part of the dynamic of the new Iraq going forward," Jafaari said. The task has been complicated by a desire by Kurds and Shiites alike to include Sunni Arabs and the eagerness of Kurds to bring in the secular list headed by outgoing prime minister Iyad Allawi to temper the influence of the religious parties that dominate the UIA. | Well done, ladies & gents, well done. |
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