Shiite groups pursue alternative to Maliki

A Shiite Muslim competitor accused Prime Minister Nouri Maliki on Sunday of hoarding power and lacking a vision for Iraq, suggesting that the incumbent still was a long way from securing a new term.

“It’s a question of programs and policies,” Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mehdi told The Times, saying his group had rejected Maliki’s policies in his first term. “Up till now, we haven’t seen anything that would make us change our decision.”

Abdul Mehdi’s party, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, has long been regarded as one of the powerbrokers in the post- Saddam Hussein era. The party has refused to endorse Maliki, and Abdul Mehdi faulted the prime minister for what he termed “mobilization of power, bad governance, [and] no vision.”

Maliki has presented himself as certain to form the next government after receiving the endorsement of anti-U.S. Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada Sadr’s bloc on Friday. The Sadr camp won 39 seats in parliamentary elections in March.

Abdul Mehdi and other Shiite Islamists, with at least 25 seats among them, are in talks to form an alternative coalition with secular Shiite politician Iyad Allawi, whose list won 91 seats, two more than Maliki’s. Allawi has strong support among Iraq’s Sunni Arab minority.

The other main bloc is that of the Kurds, who won 57 seats and whose support is necessary to control a majority in the 325-seat parliament.

If Abdul Mehdi and those other Shiite groups are able to strike a deal with Allawi, their coalition would be almost as large as Maliki’s and represent a viable alternative partner for the powerful Kurdish bloc to consider backing. The Kurds’ relationship with Maliki has been turbulent, although Maliki has made efforts in recent months to repair it.

Members of Allawi’s group have said they are willing to endorse Abdul Mehdi for prime minister.

The Kurds want the next government to resolve the status of disputed territories in the north, claimed by both the central government and the Iraqi Kurdistan regional authorities. They also want the right to control the development of oil fields in their semiautonomous region.

The Iraqi Kurdistan region’s president, Massoud Barzani, has said the Kurdish bloc will not participate in a government that doesn’t include Allawi’s Iraqiya party and Abdul Mehdi’s Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq.

There are widespread fears that if Iraqiya stays out of the government, it would sideline and alienate Sunnis — and perhaps push some of them to return to waging an insurgency against a Shiite-led government.

Abdul Mehdi said Maliki’s chances of completing a coalition agreement were far from great.

“I would say his chances in getting a majority is less than his chances of not getting a majority, but it isn’t impossible,” he said.

ned.parker@latimes.com