Allawi group slips cash to journalists

After a meeting held by Mr Allawi's campaign alliance in west Baghdad, reporters, most from the Arabic-language press, were invited upstairs where each was offered a "gift" of a $100 bill in an envelope.

Many of the journalists accepted the cash, equal to about half the starting monthly salary for a reporter at an Iraqi news-paper, and one jokingly recalled how the former regime of Saddam Hussein had also lavished perks on favoured reporters.

The press conference came as Mr Allawi and his allies kicked the electoral campaign of their Iraqi List into high gear. Mr Allawi was not present at the conference but Hussein al-Sadr, a well-known Shia cleric running on the prime minister's list, used it to challenge Islamist opponents in the United Iraqi Alliance.

In past weeks there have been signs that Mr Allawi's campaign is staging an unexpectedly strong challenge. According to the preliminary results of one survey in Shia majority areas, Mr Allawi's list was favoured by 22 per cent of respondents, compared with 27 per cent for the Alliance.

* Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine's outgoing president, yesterday ordered an early withdrawal of the country's 1,600 troops from Iraq. The move came in response to the killing of eight Ukrainian soldiers at the weekend.

Additional reporting by Awadh al-Taee in Baghdad and Tom Warner in Kiev

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/da6ad5c6-6376-11d9-bec2-00000e2511c8.html

Baghdad, Iraq, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- The political party of Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has begun handing out $100 cash gifts to reporters in the run-up to this month's election.

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050111-093926-5262r.htm

The envelopes were passed out in Baghdad Monday after a news conference by Allawi's Iraqi List coalition party. Not all reporters accepted the cash, the report said.

In the election, voters will not vote for a leader, but rather a representative from lists, who will in turn select a national leader from the body of representatives as in a parliamentary system.

Like most candidate groups, Allawi's has not announced its complete list of candidates for security reasons.

In the country where Shiite Muslims are the majority, a recent poll showed Allawi's coalition was favored by 22 percent of respondents compared with 27 percent who chose the United Iraqi Alliance.

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