Iraq will hold its general elections on Sunday. Following are the basic facts about the country's interim government and its running mechanism.
The Iraqi interim government was established on June 1, 2004, based on an interim constitution ratified by the Iraqi Governing Council in March 2004.
The duty of the interim government was to take over the control of Iraq from the US and British occupying authority. Its authority will expire when a new interim national assembly and a new government are formed after the elections scheduled for Sunday.
Under the country's constitution, the interim government has a president, two vice-presidents and a prime minister. The prime minister is in charge of the cabinet and the president is the symbol of the country.
Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi is from the Shiite majority, who accounts for 60 percent of the Iraqi population. Iraq's interim President Ghazi al-Yawar is a Sunni. Ibrahim Jafari, leader of a Shiite party, and Rowj Nuri Shawis, core leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, are the two vice-presidents.
The interim government has 33 members altogether: a prime minister, a deputy prime minister and 31 cabinet ministers, including six women. Nearly one-third of the ministers are former Iraqi Governing Council members. In addition, the interim government enrolled several experts without political party affiliation.
Under UN Resolution 1546, the Iraqi interim government took over control of Iraq from the US-led coalition authority on June 28, 2004.
At Iraq's thousand people political conference on Aug. 15, 2004, a 100-member Interim National Assembly was set up to supervise the interim government and prepare for the formation of a new national assembly in the January election.
Duties of the Interim National Assembly also include: the right to veto the interim government's policies, to discuss and ratify the government budget in 2005 and to inquire about cabinet members.
The Interim National Assembly is also responsible for organizing elections of new president or vice president if they die during their terms of office.