BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's parliament on Monday expects to hold a confidence vote on the country's Minister of Finance Hoshyar Zebari after last week's question session with the minister. Zebari, a veteran Kurdish politician from the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), has been in office since October 2014. He served as Iraq's minister of foreign affairs for nearly a decade before that. According to Iraq's constitution the parliament can hold a confidence vote on ministers if a majority of the MPs ask for the vote to take place after holding the questioning session. The ministers can then lose or win the confidence vote based on how the MPs chose to cast their ballots. Fist fights broke out in the Iraqi parliament on Saturday between KDP lawmakers and MPs from other factions who supported a no-confidence vote for the minister. KDP lawmakers claim the vote is "politically motivated" and accuse MPs from the State of Law Shiite coalition in parliament of "masterminding" the vote. "This is a political game and very much sectarian against Hoshyar Zebari," said Kurdish MP Shakhawan Abdulla. "They voted to hold the confidence session without the participation of Kurdish factions in the voting process which is outrageous," Abdulla told Rudaw. Shiite MP Haitham Jabouri who prepared the questioning session at the parliament with Zebari denied any "political agendas" behind the confidence session on Monday and called the vote "constitutional." "It is a constitutional right of the MPs to summon any minister if there are reasons for questioning their conducts in the office and there are no political intentions motivating this case either," Jabouri told Rudaw, referring to Monday's session. Earlier last week Iraq's Defense Minister Khalid al-Obeidi, a Sunni, lost a confidence vote in the parliament for allegedly "misusing his office." Three Kurdish ministers are currently serving in Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi's government, including the ministers for migration, culture and finances.
