No agreement reached between rival Iraqi Shiite parties, say Sadrists

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - No agreements have been reached and no meetings have been held with the rival pro-Iran Coordination framework, the Sadrist bloc said on Thursday, insisting on a national majority government yet again.

Almost seven months after Iraq held snap elections, the country is yet to form a new government amid disagreements between the two largest Shiite blocs.

“There have been no political understandings or meetings between us and the Coordination Framework, and we still insist on a national majority government,” read a statement from the Sadrist bloc, which won the most parliamentary seats in the October elections.

The remarks from the bloc comes after late last month, its leader Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said that he would temporarily step back from the government formation process, giving his rival Coordination Framework a chance to form a government without him. 

However, Sadr’s time off is coming to an end, and former parliamentary sessions attempting to form a new government have proven that the Coordination Framework would not be able to achieve the quorum required to elect a president, who in turn will task a new prime minister to form a cabinet.

According to the constitution, the parliament could dissolve itself and call new elections, only if at least a third of the MPs meet and present the proposal which must then be approved by a majority plus one.

Iraq’s political process has fallen into a constitutional gap after its deadline to elect a new president earlier in the month expired.

While the Iraqi constitution gives a period of one month to the parliament to elect a new president once nominations are closed, it does not specify what happens in case the legislature fails to do so in the given period. A decision to reopen nominations shall only be permitted by the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court upon an official request from the parliament.

The primary candidates for the presidency are the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) Reber Ahmed, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan’s (PUK) incumbent Barham Salih.

But the race for the presidency is just the tip of the iceberg. The Sadrist bloc, in alliance with the KDP and the Sunni Sovereignty bloc, is calling to put an end to an almost 20-year tradition of a consensus government.

Sadr last month issued a strongly worded statement, stating he would not be agreeing with the rival political parties calling for a consensus government “because a consensus would mean the end of the country.”