Iraqiya legislator says bloc won’t join Maliki-led govt.

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A legislator from Iyad Allawi’s al-Iraqiya said on Tuesday that his bloc would withdraw from the political process if the National Alliance named Nouri al-Maliki to head the government. “Al-Iraqiya is still negotiating with the National Alliance and the Kurdistan Alliance. We also have understandings with (Maliki’s) State of Law bloc that is apparently not serious in its talks with us as it insists on the premiership,” Ziyad al-Zharb told IraqiNews.com news agency. “Al-Iraqiya would not join a government that is led by Maliki,” he added. Zharb noted that Allawi did not agree on power sharing but on distribution of powers. “We want everyone to participate in the decision-making process,” he said. Differences among political blocs reached their zenith between the main two blocs, al-Iraqiya and the State of Law, with the first obtaining 91 out of the new parliament’s 325 seats while the second obtained 89. The State of Law formed a coalition with the Iraqi National Alliance (INA) to garner the largest number of seats in the new parliament. This claim was rejected by al-Iraqiya bloc, which argued that it had been the winner of the largest number of seats in the parliament and that it has the right to form the new government. Iraq’s March 7 nationwide elections had ended with the success of four main Iraqi political blocs, with Allawi’s Iraqiya winning 91 seats, followed by Maliki’s State of Law with 89 seats, Ammar Al-Hakim’s INA with 70 seats and the Kurdistan Alliance of Iraqi Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barazani and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani as well as a number of Kurdish Islamic parties with 57 seats. AmR (S) 1