{"id":42050,"date":"2019-12-23T18:22:36","date_gmt":"2019-12-23T18:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=42050"},"modified":"2019-12-23T18:22:36","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T18:22:36","slug":"iraq-anti-govt-protests-resume-amid-political-deadlock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=42050","title":{"rendered":"Iraq anti-gov’t protests resume amid political deadlock"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Thousands of protesters blocked roads and bridges in southern Iraq<\/a> on Monday, condemning Iranian influence and political leaders who have missed another deadline to agree on a new prime minister.<\/p>\n

Anti-government demonstrators burned tyres in major cities across the south, forcing the closure of schools and government buildings, AFP correspondents reported as political paralysis deepened in Baghdad.<\/p>\n

Negotiations over a candidate to replace Adel Abdul Mahdi, who resigned in November in the face of protests against corruption and unemployment, remained at a stalemate as a midnight Sunday deadline expired.<\/p>\n

More:<\/h4>\n

Iraq’s constitution requires that the parliament’s largest bloc name a candidate for the premiership within 15 days of accepting the prime minister’s resignation. That deadline expired last Thursday but was extended until midnight on Sunday. No new deadline was set.<\/p>\n

On the street, protesters are mobilising anew after weeks of relative calm in a movement that has seen hundreds killed in clashes with security forces.<\/p>\n

Demonstrators announced civil disobedience campaigns in the southern cities of Diwaniyah, Nasiriyah, Hilla, Kut and Amara, where schools and public buildings were closed on Monday.<\/p>\n

“We are upping our actions because we oppose any candidate from the political class that has been robbing us since 2003,” said Ali al-Diwani, a young protester in Diwaniyah.<\/p>\n

For Iraqis protesting since October 1, the system installed by the United States after it led a coalition to overthrow Saddam Hussein<\/a> in 2003 has become dominated by Iran and is beyond reform.<\/p>\n

Political paralysis<\/h2>\n

While renewed protests risk a resumption of the violence that has already caused 460 deaths and 25,000 injuries since October, the government remains paralysed.<\/p>\n

Officials say Iran favours the appointment of Qusay al-Suhail, who served as higher education minister in the government of Abdul Mahdi.<\/p>\n

A former key member of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr<\/a>‘s movement, al-Suhail rejoined the State of Law Alliance of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki<\/a>, who is close to Iran and an enemy of al-Sadr.<\/p>\n

Demonstrators categorically reject his candidacy and that of anyone from the wider political establishment.<\/p>\n

“What we want is simple: a prime minister who is competent and independent, who has never been involved with the ruling parties since 2003,” said Mohammed Rahman, a protesting engineer in Diwaniyah.<\/p>\n

Protesters say an overhaul of the political system must start with electoral reform.<\/p>\n

Since 2003, elections have used a complicated mix of proportional representation and list voting that favours major parties and the heads of lists.<\/p>\n

Protesters say they want a first-past-the-post system to “guarantee a new generation could enter politics to clean up everything the ruling parties have corrupted,” Rahman told AFP news agency.<\/p>\n

Parliament has recently discussed electoral reform and was scheduled to resume talks on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thousands of protesters blocked roads and bridges in southern Iraq on Monday, condemning Iranian influence and political leaders who have missed another deadline to agree on a new prime minister. Anti-government demonstrators burned tyres in major cities across the south, forcing the closure of schools and government buildings, AFP correspondents reported as political paralysis deepened…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":42051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}