Iraqi Coalition Leader Pauses Attempts at Government Formation

Muqtada al-Sadr has been an immensely popular Shiite cleric ever since the US invasion in 2003 (Wikimedia Commons).

Muqtada al-Sadr, an influential Iraqi Shiite cleric and head of the party Sadrist Movement, announced on March 31 that he would suspend attempts to form a coalition government for 40 days. This announcement gives the rival Coordination Framework bloc time to make their own attempt at forming a government.

To successfully form a government, a coalition would have to reach the two-thirds majority in the parliament required to elect a president. While al-Sadr’s coalition received a plurality of seats (73) in the election, he does not have the required 220 seats. In their latest effort to reach a majority, the Sadrist party reached out to Kurdish and Sunni political parties to form the Enquadh Watan (“Let’s save the Fatherland”) coalition with a total of 165 votes. However, a vote on Watan’s proposed candidate on March 26 failed, due to both the independent parties and to those associated with Coordination Framework refusing to attend the session.

Al-Sadr’s strategy now appears to revolve around the potential leverage gained by the failure of the rival coalition. Having been unsuccessful at creating a government since the election five months ago and facing obstructionist tactics from his rivals, al-Sadr seeks to allow the Coordination Framework to make its own attempts at negotiating with Kurdish, Sunni, and other third parties to win a majority. If their attempt fails, al-Sadr would be able to make a more convincing case for himself. 

The Coordination Framework is a coalition built around former Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki. Largely made up of Shiites, some of the parties within the bloc are supported by Iran. The Framework has pushed al-Sadr to create a mostly Shiite government with a Kurdish Prime Minister that would include both the Sadrist and Framework Shiite parties. However, al-Sadr has sought to form a government that crosses ethnic and religious divides within the country, with the underlying goal of acquiring more power within Shiite politics. In the past, the requirements for large majorities have led to unwieldy national unity governments, consisting of all parties.

As the deadlock continues in parliament, Iraq is facing what amounts to a constitutional crisis, as government formation talks are not supposed to last longer than a month. The country’s Supreme Federal Court may dissolve the parliament and order new elections if the crisis is not resolved soon. The threat of political violence remains as well: this January, rockets apparently fired by an Iran-backed militia landed close to the house of the parliament’s speaker.