Page 8 - MEOG Week 44 2022

MEOG POLICY & SECURITY MEOG

Iraq’s new government

outlines its programme

IRAQ LAST week, MEOG reported that Iraq’s par- ministerial programme is the emphasis on hold-
liament had approved the formation of a new ing early elections within a year and the amend-
government and highlighted the appointment ment of the Parliamentary Elections Law within
of Hayan Abdulghani as the country’s new Oil three months, thereby conveying a positive mes-
Minister. sage to the leader of the Sadrist movement, Shi-
The new government has set out its stall with ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who has withdrawn
a 29-page ministerial programme which was from the political process.
put to a vote and received more than 250 of 329 In other words, Sudani’s government could
parliamentarians’ approval; yet Prime Minister be another short-term government just like the
Mohammed Shia al-Sudani faces many chal- previous one, which was formed with the sole
lenges and constituencies to move his agenda. aim of achieving specific goals, most notably
Mohammed Shia al-Sudani previously holding early parliamentary elections.
served as the country’s human rights minister Accepting Sadr’s demand to hold early elec-
as well as Minister of Labour and Social Affairs. tions once again is aimed at reassuring him that
He has vowed to reform the economy, fight cor- “there is no intention to exclude him,” and on
ruption, improve deteriorating public services the other, it is aimed at reproducing the “miss-
and to combat poverty and unemployment. In ing political balance,” as noted by leader of the
presenting his government’s programme, Sudani National Wisdom Movement Ammar al-Hakim,
did not introduce any major change in the one of the most prominent leaders of the Co-or-
general policies drawn by the ministerial pro- dination Framework and supporters of Sudani.
gramme of his predecessor, Mustafa al-Kadhimi. But the biggest challenge lies in how to amend
This is despite the fact that over the past couple the electoral law, especially the mechanisms of
of months, Sudani harshly criticised al-Kadhimi agreement on the “distribution of districts,” “the
and his government over policies related to for- vote counting mechanism” and “the Elections
eign relations and regional and international Commission,” which were subjects of contention
co-operation, among other issues. in the previous elections, as the Co-ordination
Sudani has one advantage in trying to roll Framework accused the previous government
out his programme – namely, the broad parlia- of managing the elections in a way that favoured
mentary cover that his government enjoys, as it Sadr, whose movement won the largest number
is the fruit of the “state administration coalition” of seats.
formed by the Coordination Framework, which Sadr currently lacks any parliamentary rep-
is a political alliance between Shiite groups and resentation to take part in the drafting of the
military parties loyal to Iran with about 140 par- new electoral law, and he rejects any form of
liamentary seats. “dialogue” with the Co-ordination Framework
However, it eventually adopted the quota to begin with. If Sudani’s government proceeds
approach among the participating parties, which with drafting an election law that would deal a
could end up blocking any major initiatives. blow to Sadr, then Sadr could be prompted to
The most important point in Sudani’s return to the streets.

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 44 02•November•2022