Sadrist referendum winners to be named Wed. – spokesman

BAGHDAD /Iraqi News The Sadrist Movement on Wednesday will name winners in a plebiscite the Shiite bloc had held last week to pick a prime minister, a spokesman said. “The top winner’s name in this referendum will be binding to the Sadrists. His name will be offered in negotiations with any bloc wishing to strike an alliance with them and will be backed by the Iraqi National Alliance (INA),” Hazem al-Aaraji, the information official in al-Sadr’s office, told Iraqi News. 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, the spokesman for the Sadrist bloc, 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. NH (P)/AmR 2