• It’s been kinda like a soap opera with politics. Over the entire Spring and Summer and part of the Fall, Iraqi leaders have been in a huge debate over who the Prime Minister was going to be. And it appears that we’ve finally gotten to a point where Nouri al-Maliki will get his second term as Prime Minister. And second-place guy Ayad Allawi will get a little bit of power sharing but not much. Here’s how long it took to finally get everyone to get on the same page:

• 248 number of days Iraq’s already-fragile leadership was in flux
• eight number of months it took for Iraq to agree on its leadership
• seven number of hours today’s meeting to decide Iraq’s leader lasted source

• » Hurt feelings: In the time that Iraq’s leadership has remained contested, there were many points of contention. First off, Nouri al-Maliki’s party did not win the popular vote (Ayad Allawi’s party won two more seats in parliament), and both the prime minister and president are chosen by a parliamentary vote. Secondly, there were fraud allegations throughout the entire process. Thirdly, nearly 500 parliamentary candidates (mostly Sunnis) were banned from running for ties to the Ba’ath Party. Finally, it’s Iraq and there are terror attacks all over the place. Hopefully deciding on a leader will help encourage peace in the war-torn region. If we don’t get that, let’s hope the fight over Alaska’s Senate seat lasts nearly as long. (*Fingers crossed*)

Posted by Ernie Smith • Permalink