Iraq’s parliament to block PM’s technocrat cabinet

BAGHDAD: Iraq's parliament is unlikely to vote on a new cabinet line-up proposed by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in an attempt to curb corruption after lawmakers said on Monday the dominant political blocs would name their own ministerial candidates.

Abadi last month presented parliament with a list of 14 names, many of them academics, to free the ministries from the grip of a political class he has accused of using a system of ethnic and sectarian quotas instituted after the US-led invasion in 2003 to amass wealth and influence.

But political blocs, unhappy with Abadi’s proposal to replace their representatives with unaffiliated technocrats, have opted instead to name substitutes that maintain the current party balance, lawmakers said.

Abadi asked parliament on March 31 to accept, reject or modify a line-up which also shrank the cabinet to 16 posts from 22. Lawmakers said they would take up to 10 days to respond.

That deadline passed at the weekend without a decision.

"There is no agreement on the list," said Abbas al-Bayati, MP from the ruling State of Law coalition.

"The blocs are trying to find substitutes for their own ministers in the outgoing cabinet who would be technocrats at the same time."

Another senior lawmaker said it could take another 10 days or more before parliament votes on a revamped list. "I see no clear response from the political blocs," to Abadi’s list, said Hamid al-Mutlaq, a Sunni Muslim MP.