In February 2016 Iraq’s Prime Minister Haidar Abadi
announced that he would replace his cabinet with one full of non-partisan
technocrats. This caught the country’s political class by surprise as the
premier had not consulted with any of them about his decision. By the end of
March he presented his list of candidates, which then imploded with two of the
nominees withdrawing their names, and all of the political parties with the
exception of the Sadrists coming out against it. That forced Abadi to come up
with another collection of individuals, but the chaos only increased with parliamentarians
carrying out protests, fights, and even some calling for an entirely new
government.
On March
31, PM Abadi presented his new cabinet, which he hoped would usher in a new
period of reform in Iraq politics, but instead things imploded on him. First,
his Oil Minister and Finance Ministers dropped
out. Then all of the ruling parties except the Sadrists came out against
the program. The Sadrists were the only one that supported
Abadi’s call for a technocratic cabinet. The other lists wanted to maintain
their right
to select the ministers. Some went as far as to call for Abadi to resign
to be replaced by a technocrat himself. The complaints and withdrawals led the
prime minister to come up with a second list for the cabinet.
That led to a sit-in
demonstration by lawmakers in parliament on April 12. The next day things
only escalated with more protests,
the Sadrists walking out, arguments, calls for the speaker of parliament to be
dismissed, a fist
fight, water bottles thrown, and an alternative
cabinet presented by the parties. The parliament is supposed to meet again
on April 14 to decide on the cabinet, but the amount of chaos going on means
there’s little chance for that to happen. As Sajad Jiyad from the Iraqi
Institute for Economic reforms suggested on Twitter, the parliament could
easily overcome these problems by picking ministers suggested by both Abadi and
the parties, but that is too easy. Iraq’s political tradition in times like
these is to create committee after committee and then have summit meetings of
the top leaders that go on for weeks before any decisions are made. According
to Al Mada the ruling parties are already on their way as there were eight
committees formed to deal with this issue before the prime minister presented
his first cabinet. More are to come.
The core issue involved in this growing controversy is
Abadi’s attempt to take away the ministries from the lists. If he were able to
pick his own ministers that would threaten one of the main ways parties run the
government. It would also give Abadi wide ranging independence from the elite
as the cabinet would be loyal to him. There is no way that the parties, outside
of the Sadrists who are Abadi’s only supporters, will agree to this. The prime
minister makes the situation worse by never telling anyone outside of his small
core of advisers what his plans are, and doesn’t present an overview of them
once they are made public either. All together that is a recipe for disaster as
the last few meetings of parliament have shown. This entire drama will be
playing out in the coming weeks highlighting all of the dysfunction in Iraqi
politics before a compromise will eventually be worked out.
SOURCES
AIN, “Allawi’s coalition: Government must include an
independent prime minister also,” 4/4/16
eKurd, “Fighting broke out between Kurdish and other Iraqi
parliamentarians,” 4/13/16
Haeed, Saif and Chmaytelli, Mahre, “Iraq political crisis
worsens as MPs scuffle over anti-graft plan,” Reuters, 4/13/16
Iraq News Network, “Forces Union: It is not right for Abadi
to impose candidates on the political blocs,” 4/9/16
- “Jabri: We will withdraw confidence from al-Abadi in the
event of his failure to form a government of technocrats,” 4/5/16
- “National: Parliamentary committees rejected Abadi’s
ministerial lineup,” 4/9/16
- “Reforms Commission: most of Abadi’s candidates were
rejected,” 4/7/16
Iraq Times, “Deputy for the National Alliance: political
blocs presented to Abadi three candidates for each ministry,” 4/9/16
Al Mada, “Blocs pre-empty second government proposed by Abadi
… and the Liberals decide to boycott parliament,” 4/13/16
- “Reform efforts range between political initiatives and
sub-committees from two months ago,” 4/12/16
- “Sit in deputies in parliament hall sign a code of conduct
for the formation of a new government,” 4/12/16
New Sabah, “Leaders of blocs disagree on government cabinet
and pass to postpone tomorrow’s meeting,” 4/12/16
NINA, “An MP for Al-Sadr: An ongoing sit-in inside the
parliament until the change of the three presidencies,” 4/12/16
- “The Political Blocs Agreed To Submit Three Candidates For
Each Ministry,” 4/6/16
- “Supreme Council: We Will Not Allow Any Party To
Monopolize Government Decisions,” 4/6/16
Shafaq News, “Iraqi parliament postpones vote on new cabinet
on Thursday, state TV says,” 4/12/16
Van Heuvelen, Ben, “Abadi’s Cabinet reform ignites political
upheaval,” Iraq Oil Report, 4/13/16
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