The parliament’s new deputy speaker Hakim al-Zamli met with a number of parliamentary advisors on Sunday where according to a statement from his Facebook page, he said that the new parliament will focus on passing legislations that serve the people.
“His priority is cutting a percentage of the oil revenues and redistributing it among those that are jobless, graduates who have not been employed, the sick, and those with special needs, to be the first legislation for the parliament to vote on,” the statement read.
Zamli’s statement comes at a time where Iraqi parties are working on forming a new government, and the head of Zamli’s party, Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, has on several occasions preached that the new government should be one that serves the Iraqi people.
With the Sadrists having won the largest bloc in the parliament and their recent alliance with the Sunni Taqadum and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), passing such legislation could be an easy task, however the step is seen as disastrous move by analysts.
The next government is likely to be the most populist, least economically sensible and severely under-qualified yet. Expect more public sector hiring, subsidies, 'oil wealth redistribution' and other cash-burning policies, on the back of high oil prices. Disaster in the making
— Sajad Jiyad سجاد (@SajadJiyad) January 30, 2022
The Iraq based analyst added that his analysis does not apply to the government alone, but to the parliament as well, linking a piece about Zamli’s Sunday meeting.
The Iraqi government is dependent on oil revenues to cover its costs and pay the salaries of civil servants. Despite suffering in much of 2021 due to record low oil prices, the country’s oil revenue is once again booming as oil prices are increasing globally.
The increase in oil prices even helped the country pay off the final installment of the Gulf War reparation to Kuwait in December.
With the Kuwait reparations out of the way and the Iraqi Central Bank’s reserves having increased from $51.9 to $64 billion in December the parliament’s new largest bloc seems to be willing to resort to subsidies.
After years of conflict and the recent coronavirus pandemic, Iraqi youth are frontline victims of poverty and lack of job opportunities. According to data from the World Bank, in 2019 around 25 percent of Iraqis between the ages of 15 to 24 in the labor force were unemployed.
Unemployment was one of the factors that drove thousands of Iraqi youth into the streets in October 2019 calling for the resignation of then Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi and early elections. On their demand, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi made it one of his cabinet’s missions to hold early elections.
However poverty and unemployment continues in Iraq and has forced thousands of Iraqi people to migrate abroad.
