BAGHDAD, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Iraq is facing a political deadlock as rival blocs in parliament continue their prolonged and complicated disputes, leaving the country mired in legislative paralysis after early elections held last October.
The ongoing disputes are mainly between the Shiite parties.
On Oct. 10, 2021, the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Sadrist Movement took the lead with 73 seats out of the 329-seat parliament in the early parliamentary elections.
Al-Sadr then vowed to form a new national majority government from the winning parties in the elections by forming a tripartite bloc named Saving Homeland, which includes the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and al-Siyada Alliance, the largest Sunni political bloc in the country.
Al-Sadr's alliance with non-Shiite parties to form the largest bloc in the parliament, which would name a prime minister-designate, antagonized other Shiite parties, mainly the Coordination Framework, which includes former prime minister Nuri al-Maliki's party and the pro-Iran Fatah (Conquest) Alliance led by Hadi al-Ameri.
The Framework group wants to form a consensus government to include all political blocs, as was the situation in the successive governments after 2003. They believe that the largest bloc in the parliament must represent all the Shiite parties, rather than the tripartite alliance Saving Homeland, which includes non-Shiite parties.
The Framework also believes that according to the country's power-sharing system since 2003, the post of prime minister is reserved for the Shiite community, and the presidency should be for the Kurds and the speaker's post for the Sunnis.
As a result, the Framework's lawmakers boycotted parliament sessions to prevent a quorum of two-thirds of the 329-member parliament to elect a new president.
On March 30, the parliament failed for the third time to reach the quorum to elect a new president.
Political analyst Ali al-Mousa sees al-Sadr's insistence on forming a national majority government as an attempt to move away from the power-sharing system, also known as the quota system, which aimed at giving opportunities to different ethnic and sectarian factions to take part in the Iraqi decision-making process.
Al-Sadr's inclination to a national majority government stems from what he considers to be the failed ruling experience over the past 18 years, al-Mousa told Xinhua.
"He (al-Sadr) wants to leave the sectarian entrenchment and go to the broad national space," the analyst added.
On March 31, al-Sadr gave his political rivals in the Framework a roughly 40-day period starting from April 2 to negotiate the formation of a new government without the participation of the Sadrist Movement.
Al-Mousa sees al-Sadr's offer to his rivals as "just a political maneuver to bridge the gap and build confidence with the Framework."
However, all the political parties realize that violating the constitutional periods of forming a new government is better than going into the uncharted water, al-Mousa analyzed.
Nadhum Ali Abdullah, an expert of the Arab Forum for Political Analysis, attributed the political deadlock in Iraq to al-Sadr's announced position after his Sadrist Movement took the lead in the early elections.
Abdullah referred to a tweet al-Sadr posted last October, in which he insisted on forming a national majority government, fighting corruption, as well as demanding all paramilitary groups under the control of the security forces.
"Al-Sadr's early announcement shocked the other Shiite parties and prompted them to reject the majority government because they felt that al-Sadr wanted to settle old accounts with them, especially with al-Maliki," he said.
Moreover, Abdullah sees that the disputes among the Iraqi factions are associated with regional tensions, as the decisions of political parties are strongly influenced by other countries, particularly Iran.
"The crisis in Iraq may prolong, especially if Iran does not achieve success in the Vienna nuclear talks. It may try to play the Iraqi card in its negotiations to obtain advantages in exchange for allowing the formation of a new government in Iraq," Abdullah said. ■
