Iraq PM-designate Kadhimi’s cabinet choices in a ‘bad state': Sairoon MP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A member of Iraq's largest parliamentary coalition has cast serious doubt over Prime Minster-designate Mustafa al-Kadhimi's ability to form the country's next cabinet – predicting his imminent resignation.
Kadhimi will either realise his fatal errors in his choices for cabinet, or persevere and fail to gain enough parliament votes for his current list of candidates to be approved, Sairoon MP Badir al-Ziyadi told Rudaw on Monday.
“Kadhimi did not have a good and firm plan to form the cabinet, so his cabinet now is in a bad state,” Ziyadi said. “In the next few hours or days, he will either apologize and resign or go to Iraqi parliament, where he will see the result.”
Appointed as PM-designate by Iraqi President Barham Salih early last month, former intelligence chief Kadhimi's 30-day deadline to compose and present a cabinet to Iraqi parliament will expire on May 9. He needs more than 165 MP votes for his cabinet to be passed.
Having already announced their rejection of Kadhimi’s cabinet, some Shiite political coalitions - including former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law coalition and former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s al-Wataniyah coalition - have decided to boycott the parliament session in which Kadhimi will present his cabinet for approval.
With Kadhimi's deadline fast approaching, Iraqi parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi on Monday night called on MPs to head to Baghdad for an emergency session at 9 pm on Wednesday.
The PM-designate has already suffered one rejection of a proposed cabinet, with a list of candidates rejected by a majority of parliament's Shiite coalitions last month. However, Shiite political parties granted Kadhimi another chance to put a cabinet together.
Failure to pass a cabinet will prolong Iraq's lack of a fully-functioning government, initiated when mass protests forced then-Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi to resign in December after just a year in office. Shiite political parties have since wrangled over who should replace him and form the next Iraqi cabinet.
His appointment initially looked more promising than that of his two PM-designate predecessors – former communications minister Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi, then three-term Najaf governor and Nasr parliamentary bloc leader Adnan al-Zurfi – both of whom failed to get a selected cabinet approved.
When Allawi sought to get a cabinet of independent technocrats approved by parliament, Sunni, Kurdish, and some Shiite parties rebelled, fearing they would lose influence. Zurfi was unable to hold the role long enough to make his cabinet picks, elbowed aside by parliament’s powerful Shiite blocs for their preferred candidate – current PM-designate Kadhimi.
Kadhimi will either realise his fatal errors in his choices for cabinet, or persevere and fail to gain enough parliament votes for his current list of candidates to be approved, Sairoon MP Badir al-Ziyadi told Rudaw on Monday.
“Kadhimi did not have a good and firm plan to form the cabinet, so his cabinet now is in a bad state,” Ziyadi said. “In the next few hours or days, he will either apologize and resign or go to Iraqi parliament, where he will see the result.”
Appointed as PM-designate by Iraqi President Barham Salih early last month, former intelligence chief Kadhimi's 30-day deadline to compose and present a cabinet to Iraqi parliament will expire on May 9. He needs more than 165 MP votes for his cabinet to be passed.
Having already announced their rejection of Kadhimi’s cabinet, some Shiite political coalitions - including former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law coalition and former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s al-Wataniyah coalition - have decided to boycott the parliament session in which Kadhimi will present his cabinet for approval.
With Kadhimi's deadline fast approaching, Iraqi parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi on Monday night called on MPs to head to Baghdad for an emergency session at 9 pm on Wednesday.
The PM-designate has already suffered one rejection of a proposed cabinet, with a list of candidates rejected by a majority of parliament's Shiite coalitions last month. However, Shiite political parties granted Kadhimi another chance to put a cabinet together.
Failure to pass a cabinet will prolong Iraq's lack of a fully-functioning government, initiated when mass protests forced then-Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi to resign in December after just a year in office. Shiite political parties have since wrangled over who should replace him and form the next Iraqi cabinet.
His appointment initially looked more promising than that of his two PM-designate predecessors – former communications minister Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi, then three-term Najaf governor and Nasr parliamentary bloc leader Adnan al-Zurfi – both of whom failed to get a selected cabinet approved.
When Allawi sought to get a cabinet of independent technocrats approved by parliament, Sunni, Kurdish, and some Shiite parties rebelled, fearing they would lose influence. Zurfi was unable to hold the role long enough to make his cabinet picks, elbowed aside by parliament’s powerful Shiite blocs for their preferred candidate – current PM-designate Kadhimi.