Top Iraqi proposes a clear-out of top government posts

BAGHDAD: Iraqi Premier Haider al-Abadi won the support of his cabinet yesterday to eliminate a layer of senior government positions, part of a push to reduce corruption and save money in the face of mounting unrest.

After weeks of protests demanding better government and a call by leading Shia Muslim cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for tougher action, Abadi proposed cancelling Iraq’s multiple vice-president and deputy prime minister positions, currently shared out along sectarian lines.

Iraq has three vice-presidents, two Shia and a Sunni, and three deputy prime ministers, a Shia, a Sunni and a Kurd. Critics say the set-up hands high office to unqualified candidates and encourages corruption.

Mounting public anger at the state of politics, expressed in protests in Baghdad and several southern cities, risks hampering Abadi’s efforts to rally support for the fight to push Islamic State militants from territory in the north and west.

One of the vice-presidents, Nuri al-Maliki, who stepped down as prime minister last August after eight years of what critics said was ethnically divisive rule, backed the proposal.

“I renew my position in support of reforms required by the political process and guided by the supreme religious authority (Sistani) to the prime minister,” tweeted Maliki, who remains a potent force in politics, with a network of loyal commanders in the armed forces and Shia militias.

As well as removing the senior posts, Abadi called for an end to sectarian and party quotas for government positions, the reopening of corruption investigations, and reassignment of officials in the ministries of defence and interior.

The proposals needs parliamentary approval.

Abadi, a moderate Shia Islamist who has sought reconciliation between Sunnis and Shia, has struggled to build broad political support for meaningful reform.

In his sermon on Friday, Sistani urged Abadi to “strike with an iron fist” against corruption. The reclusive octogenarian enjoys almost mythological stature among millions of Shia followers and wields authority few Iraqi politicians would openly challenge.