EXCLUSIVE: Iraq PM Abadi doubles down on 'technocratic' cabinet plan

[Jefferson23]

Opponents accuse Abadi of 'leading a coup' but PM tells MEE that Moqtada al-Sadr demanded the new cabinet, threatened raid

Tuesday 5 April 2016 02:31 UTC


Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has proposed a cabinet reshuffle that consists of senior academic figures and business leaders (AFP)

BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has rejected complaints from political opponents that they were not consulted before he last week named a new “technocratic” cabinet in response to anti-corruption protests and calls for political reform.

Abadi has been accused of undermining democracy and “leading a coup” against Iraq’s power-sharing political structure that has been in place since 2003, which guarantees a certain number of political positions to the country’s Shia, Sunni and Kurdish blocs.

But Abadi told Middle East Eye in a phone interview that rival political blocs had not responded to his request for them to nominate their preferred independent candidates for cabinet posts last month.

He also said that the call for an independent cabinet had come from Moqtada al-Sadr, the influential Shia cleric who last week threatened to raid Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone unless his demands for political reform were met.

- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/iraq-pm-abadi-doubles-down-technocratic-cabinet-589011992#sthash.qwHNi6Tv.dpuf