Tlar Comment - a vote was taken in parliament and the Kurdish nominee, Faud Masum was elected to be President of Iraq. They are in the process now of electing his VP's, a Shia and a Sunni, and then by law he has 15 days to nominate the Prime Minister position.
In reality that should not take 15 days as the deal for Prime Minister is kind of like the deal was for the Presidency in the coalition. It is more likely he will nominate the PM position late today or tomorrow.
It is unknown yet as to whether that too will be cast as a secret ballot but if it is, it is almost assured going to go the same way. Jubouri is pushing this along very quickly.
No word yet as I write this whether Maliki has officially resigned. Also no word on the budget as of yet but I will put something out as soon as I see it. tlar
More Added:
Guys we are starting to sound like the preacher in Pollyanna. We need to concentrate on the glad things Masoun (I will learn to spell it later) is a Kurd. He won the secret ballot. He is a non-sectarian. He won the parliamentary vote.
Kurds hate and distrust Maliki and his stand in cronies which includes Jaafari. The coalition is working like a well oiled machine based on the vote that just happened.
The US is just posturing meeting with all the PM potentials and has little influence. This is truly being done by Iraqi's not Iran or the US.
The coalition has the votes to control the outcome if they are careful and don't screw up Its all good and just as we had hoped for. Just relax.
It is coming out right and short of some unforeseen event like a bomb hitting the parliament while they are in session, this will be over soon.
I personally think parliament will reconvene before August 5th but that is just a guess and I know it goes against logic seeing as how the parliament has officially adjourned until then.
There is still work to be done. tlar