BAGHDAD (Al Jazeera) – Iraqis are still waiting for the country’s politicians to form a government, almost eight months since parliamentary elections took place in the country, with political elites unable to find an agreement.
Popular Shia religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Sadrist Movement emerged as the biggest party in the October elections with 73 out of 329 seats, has been working to try to put together a coalition, but is still unable to do so.
In al-Sadr’s way is a rival bloc, the Coordination Framework Alliance (CFA), which is the political umbrella for the anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units (PMU).
The CFA has boycotted parliamentary votes for a new president a number of times, on the basis that an agreement with the Sadrists that ensures the CFA will have a say in who is nominated for the presidency was needed first.
This led to a decision by al-Sadr on May 4 to ask independent MPs to join his alliance, which he called Saving the Homeland, after a 40-day ultimatum he offered the CFA to form a government expired.
Al-Sadr’s new coalition includes his Sadrist bloc, the Sunni Sovereignty Alliance (al-Siyada), and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), tallying up to 180 seats.
But to form a government, a two-thirds majority – or 220 members – has to first vote for the country’s president, which has not happened due to parliamentarians boycotting voting sessions.
The Saving the Homeland alliance has agreed to nominate the interior minister of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government, Rebar Ahmed, for the presidency, while the KDP’s rival, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, has stuck to its candidate Barham Saleh, the current president.
A number of ministers in the caretaker government have also indicated that they would like to hold on to their positions, which is also contributing to the political inertia.
“The major political blocs have the ability to find a solution to the deadlock, but there is no serious will to do so,” said Ali al-Baider, an Iraqi political analyst. “The option of dissolving the parliament is not serious, as many parliamentarians might not be able to win the seats they did in the last election.”
Calls have been made by some politicians to therefore dissolve parliament and hold new elections. Constitutionally, a president should have been elected 30 days after the election of the speaker of parliament in January.
“As always, Iraqis are the big losers of the political process and the governments that have come since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003,” added al-Baider. “We [Iraqis] are still paying the bill of the current parliamentary failure, and we are entering into an unknown future.”