The people's representatives have chosen an executive:
Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish former rebel leader, will be named as Iraq's president tomorrow, government sources have said. Jalal Talabani will be appointed tomorrow. He will form a presidential council alongside vice-presidents Adel Abdel Mahdi, a Shiite Islamist, and Sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar, a Sunni Arab. The naming of a president and two vice presidents is a key step towards forming a government. The presidential council must then appoint a prime minister, who will choose a cabinet before a majority vote by the 275-member parliament.
Lacking precedent, deliberate decisions are often the wisest. Skeptics will still find fault behind and doubt ahead but remember, they'd be just as contrary and smug if the National Assembly had instead been rash, and failed to build a government.
Watching from inside Iraq's capital, Omar and Mohammed will surely have a lot to say.