Iraq’s Al Sadr courts MPs to form new government

Months after national elections, the country has no government because of political wrangling.

 The National News –Amid the political deadlock that has delayed the formation of Iraq’s new government, Shiite populist cleric Moqtada Al Sadr is wooing independent politicians to join his coalition.

Despite emerging as the clear winner in the October 10 polls, with 73 seats in the 329-member Parliament, Mr Al Sadr’s efforts to form a government hit an impasse as his Iran-backed Shiite rivals continue to pose a challenge. Parties need 50 per cent plus one of the seats in parliament — ۱۶۵ seats — to form the government.

He wants a national majority government formed by the winners, in a departure from the quota-based political system introduced after the 2003 US-led invasion to provide proportional government representation among Iraq’s various ethno-sectarian groups.

For that goal, he has teamed up with influential Kurds and Sunnis who attracted the most votes in their communities and has offered to limit the representation of pro-Iran parties who endured a major blow in the national elections.

Those parties, mainly Tehran-backed Shiite militias, wants a consensus government where they would gain or retain control of ministries.

“Yes, the successive consensus governments didn’t benefit Iraqis and Iraq, but it harmed it year after year,” Mr Al Sadr said in a statement.

“And that we see that we must get out of the consensus bottleneck to the sphere of the majority and from sectarianism to sphere of the nationalism.” That goal was not able to be achieved in the past, “but today there are independent lawmakers who love their country and are aware of the reasons behind the deteriorated situation in Iraq to this worrying and scary level,” he said.

Pro-reform October protests that overwhelmed central and southern Iraq paved the way for independent candidates to win seats in the legislative body after amending the country’s elections law.That has encouraged activists to run individually or form political parties. The prominent activist party is Imtidad Movement, which won nine seats, while other independent and smaller parties make up the rest. They hold about 40 seats.

Mr Al Sadr, whose alliance with the Kurds and Sunnis has secured 163 seats, called on independent politicians to join them on Saturday’s session scheduled to elect the President of the Republic.That session, according to the Federal Supreme Court, needs a two-thirds quorum, or 220 seats.