Shiite politician Mohamed Chia Al-Soudani, several times minister, was responsible for forming the government, after the election of the Kurd Abdel Latif Rachid to the Presidency of the Republic.
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The Iraqi Parliament elected, Thursday, October 13, Abdel Latif Rachid President of the Republic, ending a year of political impasse enamelled with violence. Former 78 -year -old Kurdish Minister, candidate for compromise in the Kurdish camp who has his hand on this honorary function, won against the outgoing president, Barham Saleh. The new head of state has instructed Mohamed Chia Al-Soudani to form a government. The 52 -year -old Shiite politician, several times minister, has thirty days to form his cabinet and try to appease the divisions within the Shiite majority who is tearing himself apart for state control.
The candidacy of Mr. Sudani was at the heart of the tensions which opposed, during the summer, the framework of coordination, an alliance formed by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Shiite pro-Iranian militias, And the Shiite Populist Chief Moqtada Al-Sadr. The latter, winner of the legislative elections of October 2021, had withdrawn his 73 deputies from the Assembly in June, exasperated by the maneuvers of his rivals aimed at bringing him together to bring together a majority to form the new executive. Thus deprived of his parliamentary base, it was in the street that he undertook to block the decision of the framework to appoint Mr. Sudani at the head of the government.
The sit-in started by Sadrist supporters before parliament at the end of July almost degenerated into an intrachia war on August 29, when more than 30 of these protesters were killed in clashes with the army and Iranian. This puff of violence decided Mr. Sadr to lift the sit-in and to withdraw, while threatening to bring his support back into the street. A sign of persistent tensions, a barrage of rockets fell on the green zone, seat of the country’s institutions, before the start of the parliamentary session on Thursday. These shots, which were not claimed, made ten injured, including four civilians.
An “important democratic stage”
They did not prevent the election of the ballot, which was hailed as an “important democratic stage” in Paris like Washington. At the end of the second round, Abdel Latif Rachid won with more than 160 votes against the outgoing president (99). Engineer trained in Great Britain and former Minister of Water Resources from 2003 to 2010, Mr. Rachid came from the old guard of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (UPK). Brother-in-law of former President Jalal Talabani, “he stayed out of the party and does not have a very partisan color,” said Hardy Mède, researcher at CESP in Paris-I. This is what convinced Massoud Barzani, the chief of the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (PDK), to support him “in a spirit of compromise”.
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