Kurdish Victory

The Iraqi parliament chose Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani as the country's new interim president Wednesday, reaching out to a long-repressed minority and bringing the country closer to its first democratically elected government in 50 years.

Ousted members of the former regime — including toppled leader Saddam Hussein — were to watch the announcement on televisions in their prison cells, Iraqi officials said. It wasn't clear if they would watch it live or on a tape.

Adel Abdul-Mahdi, a Shiite, and interim President Ghazi al-Yawer, a Sunni Arab, were chosen as Talabani's two vice presidents. After weeks of at times tense negotiations, the three candidates received 227 votes. Thirty ballots were left blank.

The announcement of the vote drew applause, and many lawmakers crowded around Talabani to congratulate him. In the Kurdish north, which had led uprisings against Saddam, crowds danced in the streets, celebrating.

While these positions are largely ceremonial, they represent a tremendous victory for the Kurds who often bore the brunt of Saddam Hussein's hostility and contempt. That each of the roles were taken by a different ethnic group shows that the Iraqi Parliment understands the need to accomodate each of the ethnic groups and claims for governance.

It is also important to note that this achievement was done without bloodshed and was done with much negotiation and bickering - just as one would expect in any democratic regime. Democracy is a messy business, and electing a government is the time when things are most messy. Choosing leadership means that deals must be brokered, power must be assessed, and concessions must be made.

In a land where conceding power was an absent notion, the election of the three men was a tremendous step forward.