Word: allawi
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Some form of election will be held in Iraq on January 30. But Tuesday's admission by interim prime minister Iyad Allawi that voting will be impossible in "pockets" of insurgent violence underscores the likelihood that the legitimacy - and finality - of the results will be questioned by important constituencies inside Iraq, and in its neighborhood. The repeated requests by moderate Sunni (and even some Kurdish) leaders, including Sunni interim president Ghazi al-Yawer, for postponement of the polls has positioned them to question its outcome. So, too, the neighbors: Speaking in Washington earlier this week, Jordan's ambassador...
...also relatively certain that the raging insurgency - and the political opposition to the poll among some Sunni groups - will keep hundreds of thousands of prospective voters away from the polls throughout the Sunni heartland, as well as in such major cities as Mosul and Baghdad. Still, Prime Minister Allawi believes that to postpone the poll would be to capitulate before the insurgency, and it's far from clear that the situation would be much different six months from...
...parties (the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, and the Dawa Party) and its blessing by Sistani, make it the favorite to emerge with the largest share of seats in the National Assembly, and its leading candidates are likely to be top contenders for the jobs of Allawi and others in the current interim government. The new assembly must elect a new government before getting on with writing a new constitution for Iraq by August...
...January 30 election, given its already-apparent flaws, is unlikely to be the final word on Iraq's immediate future. But it may well result in a transfer of the reins of power in Baghdad from longtime U.S. ally Iyad Allawi to Shiite religious-political leaders less inclined to accept Washington's tutelage. The election may well mark a turning point for post-Saddam Iraq, although in which direction is far from clear...
...pressing ahead, the U.S. intends to deny the insurgents an important psychological victory. But proceeding may well mean learning to live with a new administration in Iraq, one considerably less desirable (from Washington's point of view) than a trusted friend such as Allawi. The national assembly that will be chosen in January's vote will elect a new interim government, before getting down to the task of drafting a new constitution within nine months. And the strongest electoral slate right now looks to be the United Iraqi Alliance, a coalition of Shiite religious parties and independents assembled under...