BAGHDAD, May 26 (UPI) -- Two Sunni leaders are competing for Iraq's presidency amid Kurdish claims for one of the two top posts, political sources said.
The sources, who are close to the Iraqi Governing Council, told UPI the Kurds, who make up 20 percent of Iraq's population of 26 million, are not happy with a proposal to grant them the post of vice president.
Under the proposed formula the president of Iraq will have two vice presidents, a Shiite and a Kurd.
The sources said the current rotating president of the Iraqi Governing Council Ghazi al-Yawer, and council member Adnan Pachachi, both Sunnis, are vying for Iraq's presidency, putting pressure on U.N. envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.
Brahimi was putting the last touches on a list of candidates for the transitional government, which will rule Iraq after June 30 until elections for a legislative council can be held, according to the sources.
At least four Shiites are vying for Iraq's premiership including Adel Abdel Hafi of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Islamic Daawa Party leader Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Iyad Allawi of the National Reconciliation Movement and nuclear scientist Hussein al-Shahrastani, who fled Iraq in the early 1990s and joined the Iraqi opposition abroad.
The sources said a small number of current ministers will retain their portfolios in the transitional government, which will be mainly made up of technocrats.
