Iraq deadline to appoint PM looms, protesters unyielding
BAGHDAD: Iraqi political leaders faced a midnight deadline on Thursday to choose a new prime minister to run a country shaken by months of unprecedented street protests that have left hundreds dead.
If parliament fails to propose a candidate from inter-party negotiations to replace outgoing Adel Abdel Mahdi, then President Barham Saleh has the right to appoint a premier himself.
But if lawmakers do not approve his choice and the post remains vacant at midnight, then the constitution will place Saleh himself in the role, though for just 15 days.
The current parliament is the most divided in Iraq’s recent history. On Wednesday, deputies failed to agree on amending the electoral law — the only significant reform proposed by authorities to appease protester demands — rescheduling it to its next meeting on Monday.
Following elections last year, no bloc was able to establish the majority necessary to put its nomination for premier to a vote.
Instead, the parties agreed on an independent candidate with no base of his own — Abdel Mahdi.
A consensus choice, Abdel Mahdi lasted a year in the role before resigning in November after two months of unprecedented anti-government protests in the capital Baghdad and south, marked by 460 killed and 25,000 injured.
Despite his resignation, protests have continued in the face of brutal repression, killings and abductions, and a chilly winter.
Several names for the premiership are still circulating hours before the expiration of the constitutional deadline.
But all are insiders in a political system rejected in its entirety by protesters, who also oppose the growing influence of Iran, a powerbroker in Iraqi politics.
Outgoing higher education minister Qusay al Suhail has for several weeks been presented by officials as the candidate of Iran.
A former key member of cleric Moqtada Sadr’s movement, Suhail rejoined the State of Law Alliance of former prime minister Nouri al Maliki — close to Iran and enemy of Sadr — and seems to become the favourite for the premiership.
But nothing is sure after weeks where each day a leading candidate ends up being dismissed. In Baghdad’s Tahrir Square, posters display the rejected candidates with their faces crossed out in red.
On Wednesday, Mohammed al Soudani, a former minister and exgovernor, presented himself in Najaf to be endorsed by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani — longtime kingmaker in Iraqi politics. But he was rejected, according to sources in the shrine city.
— AFP