Negotiations on the sharing of Iraq's top posts, to be taken by leading politicians after the announcement of electoral results on Sunday, have fevered among various parties.
Once the 275 seats of the elected National Assembly (NA) are made clear, the assembly will choose a president, who along with his two deputies will designate a prime minister to lead a transitional government until the next nationwide elections 10 months away.
While not all of votes have been counted, it is believed that the list of candidates backed by Iraq's Shiite leader Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani will win a majority of the parliamentary seats.
The list, led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, is reported to have got over half of the counted votes, followed by a joint Kurdish ticket.
The list of Iyad Allawi, a secular Shiite leader running the current government and favored by US officials to see through the rest of the political process, takes only the third place and lags far behind.
Hakim's list, or the United Iraqi Alliance, is almost assured to hold the premiership, and it has recommended more than four candidates for the job, although the alliance has to ally with other smaller parties to secure its goal.
The high turnout in the Kurdish region in the north guarantees the ticket formed by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) an outstanding share in the parliament and the government.
Jalal Talabani, the PUK chief who heads the joint ticket, has also demanded to take either the post of president or that of prime minister, against earlier expectations that a Kurdish leader will be one of the deputy presidents and another Kurd the speaker.
Other demands include that Kurdish citizens who had been expatriated during the former regime shall return, the borders of the Kurdish region shall be specified, and the status of the rich- oil city of Kirkuk is taken into consideration.
Amid the calls, Allawi embarked on a visit across the Kurdish region on Thursday to meet with Talabani and Massoud Barzani, leader of KDP, on possible alliance with the Kurdish parties to challenge looming Shiite dominance.
Allawi did not clarify if he supports all the demands, but said he is not against any top positions taken by Kurds.
"Under the principle of equality between all Iraqis, we support the Kurds' desire to have any post in Iraq," Allawi said after talks with Talabani on Saturday.
In spite of reports about a deal offered by Allawi to give the Kurds the post of president and the incorporation of Kirkuk, such a deal is not officially announced and analysts believed it would meet with objection in the NA.
Some political sources said that Allawi would stay in power, since the term of the next government is only 10 months, whereas there would be some changes on other portfolios.
Al Itihad, a Kurdish newspaper belonging to PUK, said on Saturday that a number of Arab politicians supported the idea that Talabani becomes president.
It also pointed out that among supporters of the idea are Ahmad Al Chalabi, head of National Conference and one of Shiite candidates for the post of prime minister, and well-known politician Adnan Al Pachachi, head of Independent Iraqis' Gathering.
With heated discussions, most of analysts would see that the next phase would be continuity of coordination among all the political, religious and national groups, so that no single faction would rule the country, no matter how many seats it would have in the NA.
It was said that some of governmental posts would be open to parties which did not take part in the elections or boycotted them, a signal that they are not marginalized in the new government and in writing a permanent constitution.