Al-Abadi ‘best choice’ for Iraqi premiership: Spokesman

By Amir al-Saadi

BAGHDAD

A spokesman for Prime Minister Haider Abadi’s Al-Nasr (“Victory”) coalition on Thursday described al-Abadi as the “best choice” to head up Iraq’s next government following May 12 parliamentary polls.

Coalition spokesman Hussein al-Adili made the assertion in response to local news reports that several Al-Nasr members had recently left the coalition.

“Unfair political competition is behind these reports of members leaving the coalition for other lists,” al-Adili said.

The Al-Nasr bloc, he went on to explain, was now engaged in intensive consultations with other political groups with a view to settling on a nominee for the post of prime minister.

“Reports of al-Abadi withdrawing [from the premiership] or about the nomination of alternate candidates are not true,” al-Adili said.

“Al-Abadi remains the preferred candidate for the post of prime minister,” he asserted.

Before Iraq’s May 12 parliamentary poll, al-Abadi's coalition had been widely predicted to win.

But his Al-Nasr coalition came in third, clinching only 42 out of 328 parliamentary seats -- trailing behind Muqtada al-Sadr’s Sairoon coalition (54 seats) and Hadi al-Amiri’s Fatah coalition (47 seats).

Nevertheless, al-Abadi -- known to be close to al-Sadr -- is expected to play a key role in choosing a candidate for the premiership.