URGENT / Al-Jaffari wins Sadrists’ referendum

NAJAF /Iraqi News Former Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaffari won the referendum made by the Sadrist bloc with 24% of the votes, spokesman for the Sadrist bloc said on Wednesday. Speaking at a press conference in Najaf, attended by Iraqi News, Salah al-Obaidi said that al-Jaffari won the plebiscite the Shiite bloc had held last week to pick a prime minister, pointing out that the former prime minister got 24% of the votes. “Jaffar Mohammad Baqer al-Sadr, from Dawlat al-Qanoon (State of Law) List, came in the second rank with 23%, while Qusai Abdulwahab al-Sahiel, from the Iraqi National Alliance, came in the third place with 17%,” he said. “Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki received only 10% in the fourth place, followed by Iyad Alawi (9%), Bahaa al-Aaraji (5%), Ahmad al-Jalabi (3%), Adel Abdulmahdi (2%) and Rafia al-Issawi (2%),” he added. “A total of 1,428,000 persons took part in the referendum throughout Iraq,” al-Obaidi said. The bloc, under Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr, had announced its own referendum, which has no legal authority, on who should be the country’s prime minister. It put up five names for Sadr supporters and other Iraqis to choose from. They are Ibrahim al-Jaffari, Iyad Alawi, Jaffar Mohammed Baqer al-Sadr, Adel Abdulmahdi as well as Nouri al-Maliki, and an extra space added for other names respondents might favor. Sheikh Salah al-Obaidi had said on Tuesday (April 6) that results of the plebiscite will be announced today in a press conference which will be held in Najaf province. Sadr’s referendum proposal followed differences between the largest winning bloc entitled to form a government. Disputes erupted between Alawi’s al-Iraqiya bloc, which won 91 seats, and incumbent Prime Minister Maliki’s State of Law, which came second with 98 out of a total 325 seats of the Iraqi parliament. SH (S) 1