Iraq election: Politicians and powerbrokers

Iraqi election results gave a Shi'ite Islamist alliance the biggest number of seats in parliament, but several short of a majority.

These are some of the leaders contending for office or wielding power from behind the scenes.

IYAD ALLAWI

Appointed interim prime minister a month before Washington formally restored Iraqi sovereignty on June 28, Allawi, 58, has built a reputation as a tough man who brooks little opposition.

A former Baathist who opposed Saddam from exile with help from the CIA and British intelligence, he has yet to convince many Iraqis he is no mere tool of his Western allies.

But his secular alliance came third in the election with nearly 14 per cent of the vote and political manoeuvring could still enable the Shi'ite politician to keep his job.

MASSOUD BARZANI

Leader of one of Iraq's two main Kurdish parties, Massoud Barzani is determined to ensure that a permanent constitution enshrines hard-won autonomy for the mainly Kurdish north.

His Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) guerrillas fought alongside US troops in the war that ended Saddam's brutal repression of Kurds, as did those of his rival Jalal Talabani.

The two leaders have shelved their differences to pursue a federal, democratic, pluralist Iraq. Their alliance, which won 25 per cent of the vote, ensures them a strong political say.

AHMAD CHALABI

Once a Pentagon darling, Ahmad Chalabi has fallen out with the Americans who had touted him as a possible postwar leader.

He has sought political resurrection in Shi'ite politics. Despite his secular, Westernised outlook he has cultivated top cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and the radical Moqtada al-Sadr.

An ambitious deal-maker, Chalabi aligned his Iraqi National Congress party with the main Shi'ite United Iraqi Alliance, which won 47 per cent of the vote, less than it had predicted.

ABDEL AZIZ AL-HAKIM

The leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), Abdel Aziz al-Hakim tops the main Shi'ite list.

He has echoed Sistani's insistence that elections go ahead despite violence by Sunni insurgents bent on derailing them.

SCIRI has taken part in US-backed institutions since the war. Earlier it opposed Saddam from Iran, which supported its Badr Brigade militia. Hakim has led SCIRI since a bomb killed his brother Ayatollah Mohammed Baqer al-Hakim in August 2003.

IBRAHIM JAAFARI

Vice president in Iraq's US-backed interim government, Ibrahim Jaafari has frequently criticised American military action aimed at quelling Sunni and Shi'ite insurgents.

The Shi'ite Daawa party leader, a physician, has advocated drawing Sadr and other dissidents into the political process.

Daawa, once an underground Islamist party persecuted by Saddam, has, like SCIRI, taken part in the US-led political transition while endorsing Sistani's demand for early elections.

Daawa and SCIRI are the main pillars in the Shi'ite bloc.

ADNAN PACHACHI

Sunni elder statesman Adnan Pachachi wanted the elections delayed for six months, saying intimidation and violence in central Iraq's Sunni heartlands would produce a lopsided result.

He feared a low turnout by the 20 per cent Sunni minority would further marginalise the once-dominant community, undermine the legitimacy of the poll and fuel the risk of civil war.

But Pachachi, foreign minister in the 1960s before Saddam's Baath party came to power and a longtime US ally, still fought the election at the head of his own secular party. His group looks to have won no assembly seats.

MOQTADA AL-SADR

Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr staged two anti-US revolts in Baghdad and southern cities last year, but his bloodied Mehdi Army militia has observed a truce in recent months.

The charismatic preacher has endorsed no party in the poll, but some of his supporters ran as independents.

Sadr has built on the prestige of his late father Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, a murdered foe of Saddam, to attract a zealous following among the young, poor and dispossessed.

HUSSAIN AL-SHAHRISTANI

A nuclear scientist tortured and imprisoned for defying Saddam, Hussain al-Shahristani helped forge the United Iraqi Alliance, which has Sistani's tacit blessing.

He was once tipped for interim prime minister, but lost out to Allawi, who was preferred by Washington.

A devout Shi'ite who favours a secular state, Shahristani has come under attack from Allawi's outspoken defence minister, Hazim al-Shaalan, for his alleged relationship with Iran.

ALI AL-SISTANI

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has been the leading voice of religious moderation in postwar Iraq, where he wields great influence from near-seclusion in the holy city of Najaf.

A traditionalist of the Shi'ite school which eschews political power for clerics, Sistani has nevertheless forced Washington to change its transition plans time and again.

The white-bearded cleric has consistently demanded early elections, seen by Iraq's 60 per cent majority Shi'ites as the best route to correct their long exclusion from power.

He kept clear of politics in Saddam's time, but after the dictator's fall, the Iranian-born cleric took on a key role.

JALAL TALABANI

Jalal Talabani's secular, socialist Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) runs half the Kurdish enclave that broke away from Baghdad's control after the 1991 Gulf war.

Despite past feuding with the more tribal KDP, which controls the other half, the two parties are election allies.

Talabani began as a lieutenant to Barzani's father, Mullah Mustafa Barzani, the patriarch of Iraqi Kurdish nationalism and founder of the KDP, but broke away to form the PUK in 1975.

The Kurdish alliance is demanding that Talabani be appointed Iraq's next president or prime minister.

- REUTERS