Six weeks after the January 30 parliamentary elections, Iraq's main political factions have not yet been able to form a government. 

There is a prevailing belief that the elected national assembly, which is to hold its first session on Wednesday, will face a chaotic situation and all thorny issues will be stranded.

According to the Transitional Administrative Law, or the interim constitution, the first thing for the 275-member assembly will be electing a parliament speaker and two deputies, and then appointing the country's president and prime minister.

All the positions are points of difference in addition to a long list of other discords particularly between Shiite parties that won 140 seats and the Kurds who hold 77 seats.

The Shiites will certainly dominate the sovereign government now being formed, but they will need the support of the Kurds to get the two-thirds parliament majority needed to appoint a prime minister and cabinet.

It was agreed upon that Jalal Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, would be the only candidate for presidency, and Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the present interim vice president, would be the Shiite nominee for the premiership.

The horse-trading about government posts has delayed the first session of the newborn parliament and the formation of a transitional government.

In addition, the Kurdish parties insisted on strong language guaranteeing regional autonomy, including the right of any three provinces to veto the adoption of a more permanent constitution.

They know that they may never again have as much leverage as they have now. So, in return for their support, they are haggling for the right of the Kurds to run their own security forces, that is, the so-called peshmarga (militia) and the return of Kurdish refugees to Kirkuk.

Under Saddam Hussein's regime, some 100,000 Kurds were expelled from Kirkuk according to a plan to Arabize the city, where Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen co-existed.

Far more sensible, the Kurds are arguing to establish a federal state instead of a centralized one.

The Shiites resisted these demands. Iraq's most influential cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is said to be so incensed at the Kurds' stubbornness.

Reports quoted some political leaders as saying that the negotiations between the Kurds and the Shiites might have all but broken, which would give incumbent Prime Minister Iyad Allawi a chance to keep his interim cabinet as a caretaker to see through the transitional period.

The Iraqi street felt frustrated. Many Iraqis, who risked their lives to vote in the legislative poll, blamed the politicians for the political vacuum as violence continues.

"We risked our lives to vote because we thought that an elected government would bring a better future, but what we see now is that a group of people are competing like children would do for candy. Maybe we should not have voted for them, or maybe we should not have voted at all," said an Iraqi man to a local newspaper.

(Xinhua News Agency March 15, 2005)