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description= 7 posts published by Reidar Visser during March 2011;
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trictly based on combinations of rank in the baath party and type of job in the security ministries as a basis for exclusion from all or certain jobs in the state bureaucracy instead and not for the first time lami seems to be creating his own indicators of de baathification without making specific reference to the accountability and justice law beyond the questionable legal basis for the exclusion the case has interesting political ramifications what we are seeing is basically a heated internal shiite struggle about pragmatic versus hardliner approaches in the question of de baathification ali al lami and the candidate he is seeking to exclude ibrahim al lami are not only both shiites they probably both hail from the banu lam tribe of south eastern iraq as for the wider political dimensions it is noteworthy that ahmad chalabi appears to enjoy the support of the sadrists as far as the security ministries are concerned they are interested in letting chalabi himself have that portfolio the issue does not end with the internal shiite struggle maliki s candidate for defence khalid al ubaydi first emerged as an iraqiyya candidate but has since met with opposition from inside iraqiyya in particular from ayyad allawi some say this is because ubaydi is considered too close to another iraqiyya leader usama al nujayfi in other words it appears ubaydi is being favoured by maliki and nujayfi and white iraqiyya and is being opposed by chalabi the sadrists and allawi going forward the fate of these two internal struggles pragmatists versus hardliners on de baathification inside the all shiite national alliance as well as pro maliki nujayfi mutlak eisawi versus anti maliki allawi hashemi inside iraqiyya could have an impact on several momentous issues in iraqi politics including the oil law kirkuk and the question of a renewal of the sofa with the united states indeed it could have an impact on the survival of the second maliki government itself posted in uia dynamics 16 comments complex alliances in babel posted by reidar visser on sunday 27 march 2011 18 02 after the local elections in january 2009 babel was one of the most contested iraqi governorates when it came to agreeing on a new governor after a long stalemate an alliance of state of law the sadrists and iraqiyya decided to sideline isci and formed a coalition with a new governor considered loyal to state of law and prime minister nuri al maliki the babel governor salman al zarkani became one of the casualties of the latest public demonstrations in iraq when he was instructed by maliki to tender his resignation however it seems that maliki and his party subsequently lost control of the battle for the next governor the recently elected new governor muhammad al masudi is thought to be leaning towards isci and other smaller blocs independent of state of law one particularly interesting aspect of developments in babel is the recent selection of a second deputy for the speaker of the council the council speaker kazim majid tuman is a sadrist whereas his first deputy sabah abbud hasan mahdi allawi duly elected in 2009 is from the secular iraqiyya recently however and apparently as part of the deal that led to the election of the new governor a second deputy to the speaker of the council has been elected the new second deputy to the speaker is also from iraqiyya mansur hussein mani hummadi the idea of a second deputy speaker does not have any basis in the law on the powers of the governorates of 2008 in itself it seems to echo an unfortunate tendency in iraqi politics called muhasasa or quota sharing which often leads to an inflation of deputies as new posts are created basically in order to accommodate appointees of the political parties now interestingly this latest creation of a second deputy speaker is being challenged by two parties that appear to be on the defensive in babel maliki s state of law as well as the sadrists who have promised to send the matter to the federal supreme court the court may find it difficult to rule in the matter it has previously said it does not adjudicate disputes that relate to the interpretation of laws in force as such only the constitution and yet on numerous occasions it has in fact used arguments precisely from the law on the powers of the governorates even in cases of constitutional review there are certain parallels to the recent dispute about the number of presidential deputies although in that matter the constitution at least offered some guidance and left the issue as basically a political question as for the political aspect of the new developments one can get the sense that isci and iraqiyya in this case are coming closer together again at the local level but with the sadrists still sticking to their alliance with maliki at the national level things are looking slightly different right now with the sadrists reportedly still supporting ahmad chalabi as new interior minister and with iraqiyya apparently fighting among themselves about who should be the new defence minister after khalid al ubaydi reportedly pro nujayfi was recently dismissed as their candidate and replaced with others fasih al ani and hikmat al jahishi today an agenda for this week s last parliamentary meeting thursday was published once more it fails to include any mention of security ministries if things continue to drag on like this maliki may well end up in a situation where developments in the governorates could ultimately create greater challenges for him at the national level postscript in a breaking news update out of baghdad tonight isci s adil abd al mahdi says he is no longer a candidate for vice president this could further affect the overall political dynamics sketched out above in particular it will be interesting to see how the main candidate to another of the vice presidential positions tariq al hashemi of iraqiyya reacts posted in iraqi constitutional issues uia dynamics 10 comments still no security ministers parliament goes on holiday in solidarity with bahraini demonstrators posted by reidar visser on thursday 17 march 2011 13 42 it was all utterly predictable a reuters journalist wanted to get an eye catching headline and a new angle on the conflict in bahrain and no surprise he managed to find one bahrain showdown divides iraqis on sectarian lines all he then needed was a single iraqi sunni who could present a dissenting voice to the shiite parties which have been loud in expressing solidarity with the bahraini demonstrators unsurprisingly he succeeded in that respect too his victim was one ahmad yunis described as a sunni lawyer who thought he saw an iranian hand in the bahraini uprising if we look at the critical situation in bahrain we would be too naive if we ignored the iranian fingers having a gulf country ruled by a shiite majority would make iran more proud than having the atomic bomb and voila reuters had its story and the idea that sectarian conflict might re erupt in iraq because of bahrain could find a receptive mainstream media audience worldwide today the iraqi parliament presented a far more nuanced take on the situation in bahrain true many of the speeches in support of the bahraini demonstrators were given by shiite islamists as could perhaps have been predicted but there were other dimensions too kurdish and christian deputies added their support for the bahraini opposition a gathering of female deputies seconded a motion to protest against the highhandedness of the bahraini authorities salman al jamili a sunni from the iraqiyya list expressed sympathy with the mostly but not exclusively shiite demonstrators who in his view had been marginalised by the sunni regime and ultimately it was the sunni speaker of parliament also from the iraqiyya bloc usama al nujayfi who cancelled the rest of today s session in protest against what the sunni regime in bahrain is doing he called the bahraini uprising a popular movement and also condemned interference in bahrain which in the current situation can only mean the saudis and other gcc states nujayfi s action should give pause to those who want to reduce him to some kind of saudi marionette at least from that point of view his action today was a positive one as it once more showed that iraqi sunnis are far ahead of most other sunnis in the regions in terms of building relationships of trust with its fellow shiite compatriots and in recognising true popular movements whatever their sectarian make up incidentally relations between the sunni arabs and the kurds also took a step forward today parliament formally issued a decision condemning as genocide the halabja massacre in 1988 during the closing phase of the iran iraq war what was perhaps less positive about the whole affair was the fact that the parliamentary recess had after all been anticipated anyway because of the kurdish new year celebrations this weekend i e following the persian calendar it should be remembered that since it began a new session last summer after the 7 march 2010 elections parliament has in fact only been able to issue two laws i e the budget and a law on the deputies of the president it has been unable to actually elect those deputies additionally the whole affair provided yet another excuse for postponing the parliamentary confirmation of new security ministers which appeared to have gathered some momentum this week only to be absent from the agenda when parliament convened this morning parliament is now on vacation until 27 march prime minister nuri al maliki will remain acting minister for defence and the interior who would have thought that one year after the declaration of the final election results and his defeat at the ballot box in late march 2010 he should be able to demonstrate such remarkable staying power posted in iraq s 2010 parliamentary election sectarian master narrative 45 comments tamimi s challenge and why it will go nowhere posted by reidar visser on monday 14 march 2011 17 48 ismail alwan al tamimi a lawyer from wasit governorate has mounted a legal challenge before the federal supreme court in which he accuses prime minister nuri al maliki and speaker of parliament usama al nujayfi for unconstitutionally appointing three deputy prime ministers salih al mutlak hussein al shahristani and rosch shways apart from its intrinsic interest as a case of a tentative constitutional challenge to the much criticised practice of ethno sectarian quotas in iraq s post 2003 political culture the move will also draw some attention for the fact that tamimi was also involved in a past challenge in 2010 against the then temporary speaker of parliament fuad masum of the kurdistan alliance for prolonging the first session of the parliament indefinitely and thereby postpone the political process a matter where the federal supreme court actually sided with those who challenged the temporary speaker additionally tamimi works for the embattled governor of kut wasit a governorate dominated politically by maliki s own state of law alliance alas tamimi s challenge is a complete waste of time his argument is that the constitutional enumeration of two vice premiers belongs to the section of the constitution that related to the now bygone transitional period of 2005 2010 that in itself is of course correct but the more important point is this there is nothing constitutional that prevents maliki from appointing any number of vice premiers if he thinks that is politically advisable he can have one three or for that matter ten briefly the constitution says nothing about the number of ministers and only political wisdom will limit the imagination in this regard some will of course say that this limit has already been overstepped but the point is that maliki can constitutionally appoint ministers for the moon and the sun if he so desires and then add deputies what this all boils down to is that it is political not a constitutional question and if the prime minister wants to appoint a ludicrous number of placemen then it is his prerogative to do so and it is the role of the parliament not the federal supreme court to pass its verdict truly judicial issues that remain connected to the formation of the second maliki government are firstly a number of unconstitutional replacements of deputies who went on to become ministers and secondly the unconstitutional use of past members of the presidency council adel abd al mahdi and tareq al hashemi in a new role as temporary vice presidents for the ordinary president without any parliamentary approval talabani says he has issued an order for them to stay in their jobs but he has no constitutional authority to do so and in any case the deputy of the president and the deputy of the president in the presidential council are two completely different jobs that have no relationship to each other it should be added that within the cluster of cases relating to replacement deputies one can make a similar sub typology to distinguish between cases that are truly within the judicial and constitutional sphere which relate mainly to changing the governorate of a deputy during the replacement and those that are not strictly speaking against the law on replacement of candidate but instead relate to the number of votes obtained by a candidate under the open list system the latter cannot be challenged before the federal supreme court even though some of these cases clearly do involve deputies who received a miniscule number of personal votes and as such constitute an insult to the iraqi electorate if nothing else in any case even if this second group of truly judicial constitutional cases may offer a more promising avenue for criticising the seemingly endemic cronyism of iraq s new political system it is unclear whether the federal supreme court would be up to the challenge of tackling any such cases in a mature fashion indeed in the case of the deputy replacements it is unclear who has the right to mount a challenge within thirty days of the parliamentary ruling on the issue the constitution just establishes in article 52 that such a right at least exists so far at least despite growing popular unrest across the country there are worringly few signs that the iraqi political elite is beginning to realise that the protests are not only about local councils and governors but also about the way politicians perform at the national level in baghdad perhaps someone who can rouse them from their sleep is the grand ayatollah ali al sistani for the second time in a few weeks he has reportedly sided with those demonstrations that maliki blamed on baathists first he expressed sympathy for the protests in a public announcement bayan dated 26 february today there are reports that he refuses to meet with any government officials pending an improvement in the general sitution footnote the legal election of abd al mahdi and hashemi for whom there is political support in parliament is held up mainly because of the continue...
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