Calls for resignation of parliament speaker still strong, Iraqi MP says

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region— The current speaker of the Iraqi parliament and his two aides are not “up to the task” of overseeing the government and ensure economic reforms in the country, a Kurdish lawmaker of the Iraqi parliament told Rudaw on Tuesday

Adil Nouri, a Kurdish MP said they are now collecting signatures in the parliament to “make the Speaker leave his position.” 

“The parliament presidency were incompetent when it came to managing any of the crises that emerged over the past two years. That is why there should be a new president and new aides who should be more vigilant, daring and active in addressing the pending issues,” Nouri said. 

Saleem Jabouri, a 44-year-old educated Sunni politician with a feeble power base among the fragmented Sunni population in the country has been under fire for what many see as his indecisiveness in addressing the reforms carried out by Prime Minister Haidar Abadi, a Shiite.

Abadi has sought to combat the pervasive corruption in government institutions by removing general managers and cabinet ministers, a plan which has partly backfired as both Sunnis and Kurdish factions have refused to support his new so-called technocratic cabinet without prior consultations with the two factions. 

Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has faced tough criticism, mostly from Sunni and Kurdish factions in the parliament, for his efforts to remove Jabouri after the parliament refused to endorse Abadi’s new cabinet.