Candidates Discussed For 3 Man

Candidates Discussed for 3-Man Presidency

Al-Qabas (Kuwait) reports that Iraqi sources close to the Interim Governing Council say that the IGC is now negotiating with the Americans about forming a three-man presidential council and announcing a new interim government. The sources say the prime candidates for the tripartite presidency are Adnan Pachachi, Jalal Talabani and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. They represent secular Sunni Arab nationalists (Pachachi), Kurds (Talabani), and religious Shiites (al-Hakim). They also envisage that Ibrahim Jaafari, leader of the Shiite al-Da`wa party, would play a leadership role (perhaps as speaker of the house?) in the transitional government. The sources also said that the intensification of terrorist acts in the past month has underlined that it is impossible to hold general, direct elections at this time.