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The next vote in Iraq is the Oct. 15 referendum on the nation's constitution, but the political elite is already turning its attention to the general elections scheduled for December. Most Iraqi politicians now expect the constitution to be approved; fears have faded that Sunni Arabs might manage to vote it down. The optimism rises from several developments. First, as more and more Sunni Arabs read the proposed text, now widely distributed, they realize it is not as bad as some of their self-styled leaders claimed. The latest suicide-killer attacks have also come as a wake-up call to Sunnis not...

...The argument for postponement, of course, is that the insurgency in Iraq will make holding elections difficult.... But Iraq's anti-democratic forces already seem to be operating at maximum capacity, and recent coalition operations are reducing their ranks as they've lost safe havens. The last thing these terrorists should see now is that their resort to violence can force postponement of the vote. That could lead to even more violence and another delay, and then another.... The danger is that any significant postponement will shift Shiite sentiment in the direction of more radical voices -- Moqtada al-Sadr's or others'. Moreover, if...

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi Governing Council members accused American officials Monday of pressuring them to accept Washington's choice for Iraq's new president, prompting a delay in the announcement of a new government to take power from the U.S.-led coalition June 30. U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi had hoped to complete the selection of the 26-member Cabinet by Monday. However, a Governing Council session that was to have chosen a president was postponed until at least Tuesday, with sharp differences remaining between the council and the coalition over the largely ceremonial head of state job. "I hope it will be taken...

This story was printed from channelnewsasia.com Title : Sunni Muslims in struggle for Iraq presidency, truce shaky By : Date : 31 May 2004 0121 hrs (SST) URL : http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world/view/87646/1/.html BAGHDAD : Two senior Sunni Muslims were competing to become Saddam Hussein's successor as president of Iraq, as an interim government took shape and fresh violence broke out in the holy city of Najaf. Iraqi politicians and US officials locked horns over whether Ghazi al-Yawar, the chair of the Governing Council, or elder statesman Adnan Pachachi would take on the largely ceremonial post of president. "They want to impose...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi leaders are wrangling over who should succeed Saddam Hussein as president after they agreed on other key posts in the new government that will take power next month from the U.S. occupation authority. With the top post of prime minister filled and consensus on key ministries, Iraqi officials spoke on Sunday of sharp disagreement on the largely ceremonial choice of head of state between Adnan Pachachi, veteran scion of a pre-Saddam political dynasty, and Ghazi Yawar, a youthful engineer long based in Saudi Arabia. U.S. and U.N. officials may now be ready to propose a third...

<p>Following is an edited transcript of a statement made by Adnan Pachachi, the current president of the Iraqi Governing Council, at a Baghdad news conference Thursday. Pachachi is heading a Governing Council delegation that meets Monday in New York with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civilian administrator of Iraq. Pachachi's statement was made in Arabic and was translated by the U.S. occupation authority.</p>

<p>Iraq's American-backed administration failed in its first week to choose a president, abandoning that mission in favor of a weak, three-man rotating leadership. The top U.S. official in Iraq -- who hand-picked the Governing Council -- returned to Washington while an insurgency killed another American soldier Saturday.</p>

KUWAIT (Reuters) - A prominent Iraqi exile said on Saturday only a democratically elected government should be allowed to sign the massive contracts needed to reconstruct the country. Former Foreign Minister Adnan Pachachi criticized Washington over its plans for a U.S.-led civilian authority to hand out reconstruction contracts without the approval of an elected Iraqi government. No one has the right to commit Iraq to obligations and costs," he told a news conference in Kuwait. "Only an Iraqi government can do that. A parliament should also endorse the agreements." The U.S. government on Thursday awarded Bechtel Corp. a $680-million-contract to...