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Baghdad awakened on 13 October to the sound of Katyusha rockets falling on the Inexperienced Zone, the placement of the Iraqi parliament and an space the place bridges and streets will be lower at any time when parliament holds a session.
The session for that day was not an extraordinary one, however was one which the Iraqi folks have been ready for for the reason that early normal elections maintain as a response to the October 2019 protestations, because the parliament was attributable to elect a brand new president for the nation.
Nobody has claimed accountability for the rockets, however Hassan Al-Adhari, who was head of the resigned Sadrist bloc within the parliament, stated that followers of the Sadrist Motion led by Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr had not fired rockets on the Inexperienced Zone.
“Anybody who makes use of weapons to hinder the parliamentary session is loyal to the corrupt and desires to dominate the nation and the folks,” he stated. Virtually one hour after the rockets fell, the session started with a quorum. There have been 269 MPs from 325 and 20 MPs boycotting the session.
The voting started for the 30 candidates standing for the submit of president, all of them besides Abdel-Latif Rashid and Barham Salih figuring out upfront that they’d lose.
About 277 MPs voted by secret poll within the first spherical that resulted in a slight advance for Rashid over present President Salih. Each males belong to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) that was supporting Salih. Rashid was introduced as an unbiased.
The second spherical confirmed a lead for Rashid, who received 162 votes to 99 in favour and eight invalid votes and was sworn in as the brand new president of Iraq.
Mohamed Shia Al-Sudani was appointed by the Coordination Framework, the most important parliamentary bloc after the resignation of the Sadrist Bloc, as the brand new prime minister and tasked with forming a brand new authorities.
The brand new president is a Kurd, just like the earlier presidents. Whereas this isn’t primarily based on the structure, it has turn into a norm in Iraq for the reason that formation of the interim authorities in 2005. The president of the republic is a Kurd, the speaker of the parliament is a Sunni Muslim, and the prime minister is a Shia Muslim.
The brand new president is 74 years outdated, was minister of irrigation and water assets from 2006 to 2012, and since then has been a chief adviser to the presidency. The brand new first girl, Shanaz Ibrahim Ahmed, is the sister of former first girl Hero Ibrahim Ahmed, widow of the late former president Jalal Talbani.
Al-Sudani, 52 years outdated, would be the first prime minister since April 2003 who has not lived outdoors of Iraq, or, as was described by Iraqis on social media, “didn’t include the American invasion on the roof of a tank.”
He was a member of the Misan provincial council, governor of Misan about 320 km southeast of the capital Baghdad, minister of human rights and labour, and a MP within the final three parliaments.
At a ceremony on the Peace Palace in Baghdad on 17 October to inaugurate the brand new president, Rashid stated that he would make each effort “to guard the structure and clear up present issues,” including that “the earlier stage was tough for everybody.”
He expressed his due to “the representatives of the Iraqi folks for giving me their confidence, and I thank the supreme spiritual authority”.
“We’re enterprise the duties we’ve labored for, and we bear in mind the wounded and martyrs of the armed forces.”
Al-Sudani introduced that his priorities have been electrical energy, healthcare, municipal providers, and combating corruption. He can be “chargeable for holding the related minister accountable and changing him in case he fails or commits corruption”.
Though there’s a interval of 30 days to submit the names of the brand new cupboard to the parliament, media reviews quoted many MPs as saying that Al-Sudani would submit them inside the coming couple of weeks or earlier.
“It’s the best start of a authorities in Iraq since 2003,” political analysts stated, noting that it was one 12 months and three days from the final elections. Al-Sudani pledged to call ministers who weren’t solely Shias, Sunnis and Kurds, who share the sovereign ministries beneath the so-called muhasasa, a power-sharing coverage, primarily based on the variety of their MPs.
Turkmens and Christians may also be represented within the new authorities.
One excellent query is whether or not Sadrists will take part within the new authorities. “In accordance with many earlier statements, the Sadrists are refusing to take part within the authorities,” Mujashaa Al-Tamini, a political analyst, instructed Al-Ahram Weekly, including that Salih Mohamed Al-Iraqi, described as a minister of Sadrist chief Muqtada Al-Sadr, had stated that the Sadrists wouldn’t take part within the Al-Sudani authorities.
He denied reviews alleging that there are secret negotiations with the Sadrists relating to the brand new authorities.
Whereas most Iraqis are hoping that the federal government will draw up the price range for the approaching 12 months as quickly as potential, the brand new authorities has discovered itself dealing with allegations of corruption even earlier than the appointment of ministers.
In a deal described by totally different Iraqi media networks because the “theft of the century,” Iraq’s oil minister and former performing finance minister Ihsan Abdel-Jabbar revealed final Saturday {that a} group had taken 3.7 trillion Iraqi dinars, nearly $2.5 billion, from the Nationwide Tax Authority account within the Iraqi Rafidain Financial institution.
In response, Al-Sudani vowed that “we won’t enable the cash of the Iraqis to be stolen, as occurred with the funds of the Tax Authority within the Rafidain Financial institution.”
“The Al-Sudani authorities will probably be given confidence as a result of it has been authorised internally and externally,” Al-Tamimi instructed the Weekly. “Iraq is a card that may be performed by Iran and America, after which by Turkey and the opposite Arab nations.”
*A model of this text seems in print within the 20 October, 2022 version of Al-Ahram Weekly.
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