No consensus yet on new Iraqi PM as deadline looms

Iraqi political parties struggled to reach a consensus on a new prime minister Monday amid unprecedented protests as the deadline for a parliamentary vote loomed.

Iraq's competing factions typically engage in drawn-out discussions before any official decision, but replacing outgoing premier Adel Abdel Mahdi has been further complicated by the scrutiny of the months-old protest movement that forced his resignation.

For over two months, Baghdad and the Shiite-majority south have been rocked by protests against the government and Iranian influence, rejecting in advance any politician from the "corrupt system" in place since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. The protest movement erupted on October 1 and was met with violent suppression, with some 460 people killed and 25,000 wounded to date.

Abdel Mahdi's resignation on December 1 was precipitated by a wave of violence against demonstrators and the intervention by top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, whose influence looms ...