The two main Iraqi coalitions have failed to find an agreement to form the government. And that is why the ball is now in the hands of independent candidates.
Seven months have passed since the elections on 10 October that defined the two most numerous blocs in parliament. On the one hand, the coalition Save the homeland, led by the religious Muqtada al Sadr who won almost two hundred seats and, on the other, the Coordination Framework, led by former prime minister Nuri al Maliki, who got 88 parliamentarians elected. Since neither side was able to reach a compromise to form the new government, they asked the independents to take a stand to decide the composition of the next executive.
The political impasse
On May 4, Al Sadr said via Twitter that it is now up to the independents to appoint the 40 members of the new government. And he promised to give his support to this formation as long as “none of them belong to the coordination framework”.
For its part, the opposing coalition held an urgent meeting to launch “a new initiative” articulated in 18 points “to get out of the current political impasse”. In point four, the initiative proposes to independent representatives to “nominate a competent, upright, admissible and impartial candidate. In short, with all the necessary qualifications to lead Iraq in this delicate phase of the country’s life ”.
But the two main political camps are now embarrassed because they have exceeded the deadline for giving a government to the country, which the constitution sets three months before the elections. The President of the Republic Barham Saleh has warned them of this blatant violation of the charter.
The two coalitions, unable to arrive at a synthesis, aim to place the responsibility for the deadlock on the independents. In fact, they know very well that their 38 seats do not constitute a bloc at all: they belong to distant cultural backgrounds and for this reason they have divergent political views.
So time will be wasted. Apparently, and we will still be left with the emergency government stripped of any power.
_ (__ Translation by Francesco De Lellis) _