More than a year after the parliamentary elections, the Iraqi factions have agreed on a new cabinet. Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani announces an ambitious reform program in his first speech.
Iraq’s new prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, has set himself ambitious goals.
The new Iraqi Prime Minister has set himself ambitious goals. Mohammed Shia al-Sudani wants to fight rampant corruption, create jobs, improve public services and initiate economic reforms. That sounds promising and is in many ways what the protest movement that took to the streets in Baghdad, Basra and other cities against corruption, clientelism and mismanagement in autumn 2019 demanded.
In Iraq, of course, the prime minister cannot simply govern. He has to take into account the numerous coalition partners, with the most important offices being given to representatives of the Shiites, the Sunnis and the Kurds. On the one hand, this serves to keep the heterogeneous country together. However, the consensual system introduced after the overthrow of the despot Saddam Hussein also blocks reforms.
Kurds prevent a change
The tussle over the formation of the new government shows how difficult it is to push through reforms. As a concession to the protest movement, early elections were held in October last year. From these, the faction of the populist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr emerged as the strongest force. For months, the Sadrists tried in vain to form a government together with the factions of Parliament President Mohammed al-halbusi and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of the Barzani family.
However, the first step would have been to elect the President. And that would have required the votes of the other Kurdish faction, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Since 2006, the largely representative office of President has traditionally gone to the PUK. However, the election failed due to the bitter power struggle between the two Kurdish parties, which had fought a bloody civil war in the past.
Unnerved by the blockade, Sadr threw in the towel, withdrew from politics and forced his 73 MPs to resign. If Sadr was counting on the other parties begging him to turn around, he had miscalculated. Instead, his inner-Shiite competitors, who had received a difficult lesson in the election, agreed on a compromise with the Kurds and the Sunnis.
First finance minister
In October they elected Abdul Latif Rashid as President. Rashid was once Minister of Water Resources. But most Kurds don’t know him. The 78-year-old PUK man owes his office primarily to the fact that he is related to the former president and charismatic former party leader Jalal Talabani. Rashid immediately nominated Sudani as head of government. Sudani was then elected on Thursday.
Sudani is the country’s first prime minister not to live in exile during Saddam’s dictatorship. In the past he was governor of southern Iraq and held several ministerial posts. Observers credit him with the fact that he is not accused of corruption. However, the 52-year-old Shia is believed to be a man of Shia hardliner Nuri al-Maliki, who was prime minister between 2006 and 2014 and was responsible for the rise of Islamic State extremists during that time.
Technocrats like the new oil minister Hayan Abdul-Ghani and finance minister Taif Sami Mohammed are in Sudani’s cabinet. The first woman in this office was previously responsible for budget issues in the Ministry of Finance. In the process, Mohammed gained the reputation of being an “iron lady” in the fight against rampant corruption. The defense and interior ministries go to two men from the security apparatus, the foreign ministries remain in the hands of Fuad Hussein of the KDP.
The populist Sadr lurks in the background
Sudani’s most important task will be to break free from the shadow of Maliki. Like the implementation of his reform program, that could be difficult. Because Sudani only got three seats in parliament with his newly founded party. He will therefore be dependent on the favor of his coalition partners. However, they have little interest in changing the corrupt structures from which they benefit.
Furthermore, Sadr is still lurking in the background. The populist has often withdrawn from politics, only to end up sending his many supporters onto the streets. At the end of July, Sadr supporters stormed the parliament in Baghdad’s green zone, the clashes resulting in at least 20 deaths. To appease the troublemaker, Sudani responded to his call for new elections. There will be a re-election next year. So Sudani will not have much time to implement his reform promises.