Iraqi lawmakers protest over vote delay of new cabinet candidates

Dozens of Iraqi legislators held a sit-in Tuesday inside the parliament protesting the delay of the proposed vote of new cabinet candidates after the parliament Speaker adjourned the session until Thursday.

The protest started in the afternoon immediately after the parliament Speaker, Salim al-Jubouri, adjourned the session, during which a vote on candidates was expected to be presented by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi for a major cabinet reshuffle.

Legislators from various parties were chanting slogans against the speaker, demanding an end to the quota system, created following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, according to which Iraq's resources and control would be divided among the political parties representing Iraq's ethnic and sectarian factions.

The delay was made to yield to legislators more time to investigate the backgrounds of the new candidates nominated by the political parties. It follows another proposed list of candidates presented by Abadi late last month, where he nominated 14 candidates to parliament for a new cabinet lineup which includes independent technocrats.

However the political turmoil stirred by Abadi's first list of candidates forced him to change his list of candidates after the candidates were rejected by the political parties who then insisted to nominate candidates loyal to them, refusing to step down due to lack of trust between the discordant political parties.

The political discord among the lawmakers was over those wanting independent candidates not loyal to any political party, and others insisting on candidates loyal to their parties to guarantee their role in the decision-making process.

"We are around 50 legislators from various parliamentary parties, including the Ahrar party, and we are gathered here to protest inside the Council of Representatives (parliament), because we want to vote on a new cabinet of technocrats independent from the quota system," Ali Shwilyah, a protestor from the Ahrar party (loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr) told local Iraqi television. "This is a prominent demand as we refuse to politicize the government."

Three Iraqi ministers loyal to Sadr resigned from their posts Monday in protest of alleged attempts by Abadi and the parliament to exclude candidates from a cabinet reshuffle, which would bring in technocrats loyal to leading political parties.

The influential Sadr cleric is a member in the country's political life and his al-Ahrar parliamentary party holds 34 seats in the 328-seat parliament and three ministers.

The ministers who resigned said that if they remained in their posts with the insistence on the quota system for political parties, this would bind ministers to these parties when several senior ministers are accused of serving the party's interests instead of common interest.

For the past few weeks, Sadr and thousands of his followers gathered in downtown Baghdad, demanding Abadi to come up with substantial reforms, including a government reshuffle, better services and an end to corruption.

The reforms also need to address the country's economic crisis due to the sharp drop in global oil prices whilst security forces are fighting Islamic State militants in the north and west of Iraq. Endit