Abadi unwilling to hold budget talks with president and speaker
“We gave the president a suggestion that was liked by both the speaker for the parliament and the president that the three presidencies meet to discuss this topic [the budget]. However, Abadi gave a very uncivilized response to them and is unwilling to meet with them. He [Abadi] wants this issue solved in the parliament. This cannot be resolved in the parliament,” Arafat Karam, head of the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) faction in the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw.
Alongside Kurdish factions in the parliament, Karam said Sunni factions and 50 other Shiite MPs oppose the bill.
Kurdish MPs have repeatedly boycotted parliamentary sessions to prevent a quorum, which would allow a vote to be held on what they view as an illegal and unconstitutional bill that does not meet the needs of the Kurdistan Region.
Speaker of Iraqi Parliament Salim al-Jabouri has sent an official invitation to Abadi and Masum to meet to discuss the budget bill, according to Shwan Dawoudi, a Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) MP.
“Unfortunately the elections campaign has affected the three presidencies. Abadi’s unwillingness to participate in the meeting of the three presidencies is him sending a message to the public and using it for his election campaign,” Ahmed al-Jabouri, a Sunni MP of the Iraqi Alliance, told Rudaw.
Abadi is in an election year and faces stiff competition to rally votes as he and the previous Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have decided on separate election lists. Abadi is a member of the Dawa Party, headed by Maliki.
In a series of tweets on Friday, Abadi attacked Jabouri, accusing him of stopping the budget for political reasons.
“He had used high voices in public regarding the region’s high budget, and today wants a secret agreement with some parties in Kurdistan to stop the budget with flimsy arguments,” Abadi said in an apparent reference to Jabouri.
The Kurdish factions have a number of objections to the budget bill, most notably the Kurdistan Region’s share, which has been cut to 12.6 percent. The Kurdish parties want it increased to the usual 17 percent. Abadi insists he will not revise the figure.
The Sunni parties want a bigger share of the budget to be allocated to their war-ravaged towns. Meanwhile, some Shiite MPs from oil-producing provinces like Basrah have also demanded more resources.
“The unwillingness of the prime minister to participate in the meeting of the three presidencies means that the budget bill will be passed with a majority, rather than a political consensus. The government has touched on whatever there is in the budget. There are no hidden things,” Razaq Muhbis, an MP from the Shiite Badir bloc, told Rudaw.
The Shiite National Alliance, the largest block in the Iraqi parliament, should conclude the matter and pass the bill, Muhbis added.
The Central Bank of Iraq sent $210 million to its branch in Erbil on January 29, but the KRG says they don't know what the funds are for. Kurdistan's finance ministry has explained they have no direct relations or authority over the Erbil branch of the Iraqi central bank.