BAGHDAD — With Iraqis increasingly concerned about a security vacuum, the man who is expected to become the next prime minister on Saturday defended the winning blocs, which have not formed a government nearly six weeks after millions of people risked their lives to vote.
In an interview, Ibrahim Jafari, the nominee of the slate that won the most votes in the Jan. 30 election, said it could take two more weeks to close a deal.
"It's not a simple experiment," Jafari said, trying to explain the delay in forming a government. "It's a complex one."
Behind the scenes, the two largest vote-getters, Jafari's Shiite Muslim-dominated United Iraqi Alliance and the Kurds, are engaged in frantic negotiations. The groups are meeting almost round the clock, and there has been constant maneuvering as the two try to compromise while satisfying their respective constituencies.
Last week, some politicians announced that a government would be set by the first meeting of the new National Assembly, scheduled for Wednesday. But now it appears likely that the meeting will be ceremonial while negotiations continue.
That leaves Iraqis, frightened by two large suicide bombings this month that killed nearly 200 people, wondering why they braved insurgents' threats to go to the ballot box.
Shopkeeper Mohammed Saddoun stood in front of his storefront grocery last week with several friends, lamenting the delay.
"I am not only frustrated, I am ready to burst with anger," Saddoun said. "We put our souls in the ... palms of our hands and went to the ballot centers. You remember the threats there were that they would kill people who voted.
"Well, if they cannot form a government, then I think they are not qualified to manage the country's affairs. This vacuum of power increases the number of terrorist acts, it opens the way for the terrorists."
Sabah Yusef, 25, a political science student at Baghdad University, described an overwhelming sense of disappointment and confusion. A Sunni Muslim, he did not vote. Now, with the government seemingly adrift, he says he has no idea who is running his country.
"I feel sad to see the Iraqi government in such a situation. I keep wishing they would agree on a government and then hold general elections for all Iraqis.... Until now we know nothing about how the government will be formed. Nothing has surfaced," he said.
