The name of Iraqi politician Adel Abdul Mahdi, who served as vice-president from 2005 to 2011 and as Finance and Oil Minister, emerged in Baghdad on Monday as the “best compromise candidate” for the position of prime minister post to succeed Haidar al-Abadi. Mahdi’s candidacy won the unprecedented support of both the Sairoon alliance of Moqtada al-Sadr and the Fateh bloc of Hadi al-Ameri. “Mahdi seems to have good chances to become prime minister,” Fateh MP Naim al-Abboudi told Asharq Al-Awsat. He added that Ameri has repeatedly said that he was not attached to any position and that he supported any candidate, who gets the backing of other blocs. Meanwhile, Abadi has remained as a candidate to run for a second term in office. Iraqi politician Hassan Al-Alawi told Asharq Al-Awsat Monday that although leaders from Abadi’s Dawa party were exerting efforts to reach power, the political structure in the country no longer allows the party to win a fifth term. “Abadi will not return for a second term because he lacks a partisan, parliamentary and popular base in Iraq,” Alawi said. On the Kurdish level, Bafel and Kibad Talabani, the sons of late Iraqi president and leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Jalal Talabani, made an offer to convince Barham Salih to dissolve his Coalition for Democracy and Justice (CDJ) party and return to the ranks of the PUK in exchange for a nomination for the Iraqi presidency.  An informed source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said negotiations held late on Monday between Salih and Talabani’s sons succeeded in convincing the former Iraqi Kurdistan Region prime minister to abandon his party and return to the ranks of the PUK. Last Sunday, the PUK politburo met to choose its candidate for the Iraqi presidency, a post consistently held by the party since 2005.