The Sadrist parliamentary bloc, called Al-Ahrar, announced on Tuesday that it will not participate in the next government formation, calling on Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi to submit the names of his new cabinet members on Thursday.
“We are with the ministerial reform, but we do not want to participate in the next cabinet formation,” said Dia al-Asadi, secretary general of the Al-Ahrar bloc, a Shia political coalition loyal to powerful cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Al-Asadi called on the political blocs to declare their position on the principle of quotas in the next government formation, stressing that Al-Ahrar does not want the quota system but wants a national government.
“The whole system needs to be tackled – changing the ministers is not going to tackle what facilitates corruption,” said al-Asadi. “We need to think about changing the system and the entire architecture and hierarchy of the ministries.”
The Sadrists and many others want to change a quota system in place since the first post-war Iraqi government that sets aside specific positions for Shia, Sunni and Kurdish political blocs.
Al-Sadr and his supporters have been staging sit-ins inside and outside Baghdad’s Green Zone, home to embassies as well as parliament, the prime ministry and other government offices, to demand government reforms, including a cabinet reshuffle that does not include ministers affiliated with political blocs.
Iraq’s parliament on Monday voted to give Al-Abadi a three-day deadline by which to present his new government or face a vote of no-confidence.
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