Al-Jaafari named Shiite prime minister candidate

BAGHDAD — Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a Shiite doctor with an Islamist bent, was chosen Tuesday by the victorious Shiite alliance as its candidate to become Iraq's new prime minister. The decision may well open a period of protracted and rancorous negotiations with a coalition of secular leaders intent on sharply curtailing al-Jaafari's powers or blocking him and his clerical-backed coalition.

Ayad Allawi, the current prime minister, and Barham Salih, a Kurdish politician and deputy prime minister, said in separate interviews on Tuesday that without guarantees renouncing sectarianism and embracing Western democratic ideals, they were poised to block al-Jaafari's nomination and possibly peel off enough members from the Shiite's United Iraqi Alliance to form a government of their own.

Iraq's interim constitution effectively requires a two-thirds majority in the new assembly to select a prime minister and a government, and the Shiite alliance led by two religious parties with close ties to Iran won a bare majority in the Jan. 30 election.

Indeed, initial indications were that a

potentially polarizing battle was in prospect, one that could expose the deep fissures in Iraqi society that have been held in check since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Those fissures not only cut across sectarian lines and ethnic lines but also track a wide disagreement about the nature of the Iraqi state — whether it should be religious or secular, centrally led or governed by a federal system allied to Iran or anchored in ties to the West.

Al-Jaafari, 58, won the nomination when his final challenger, Ahmad Chalabi, agreed to withdraw. Chalabi, a secular, American-educated exile and a one-time favorite of the Bush administration, had been pushing for a secret ballot within the Shiite alliance to determine a candidate for prime minister.

Chalabi agreed to drop out of the race, following intense pressure from the leaders of the two main wings of the Shiite alliance, al-Jaafari's Dawa Party and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or Sciri, led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. Chalabi promised to support al-Jaafari, and stood with him and several other Shiite leaders at a news conference to announce the decision. "Unity is more important than winning," Chalabi said.