Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari looks set to keep the top job in Iraq's new government after his ruling Shia bloc nominated him yesterday.
After weeks of wrangling that exposed divisions in the biggest bloc in parliament, the United Iraqi Alliance resorted to a vote to pick a candidate, with Mr Jaafari beating pragmatic economist Adel Abdul Mahdi by just one vote.
As the biggest party in parliament after winning 128 of the 275 seats, the alliance will be asked by the next president to name a prime minister, to be approved by a simple parliamentary majority, under the Iraqi constitution.
Mr Jaafari, a leader in the Dawa party, is almost certain to remain in office to lead the first full-term government since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
The challenges he faces include an insurgency that has ravaged Iraq, bloody sectarian tensions and a battered economy that few foreign investors will touch.
In a news conference after he won the vote, Mr Jaafari announced sweeping plans but offered no specifics, prompting his critics to say he is too slow in making decisions.
"This process will start to employ all the energies to build Iraq, to move ahead on the security situation, on services, on the economic situation and reconstruction, on political performance internally and externally," he said.