Shafaq News- Baghdad
Sunni political forces are expectedto retain six ministries in Iraq’s next government under ongoing power-sharingunderstandings, Azzam al-Hamdani of the Al-Azm Alliance told Shafaq News onFriday, a day after Prime Minister-designate Ali al-Zaidi submitted the newgovernment’s ministerial program to Parliament.
Al-Hamdani said negotiations withinthe Sunni political camp —which holds a combined 77 seats in Iraq’s 329-memberParliament— are proceeding according to an “electoral weight equation,” underwhich ministries are distributed based on parliamentary representation.
Based on the current understandings,Muthanna al-Samarrai’s Al-Azm Alliance holds 17 political “points,” entitlingit to two ministries in addition to the deputy prime minister position, whileMohammed al-Halbousi’s Taqaddum (Progress) Alliance retained the speakership ofParliament. Sarmad al-Khanjar’s Al-Siyada (Sovereignty) Alliance and theAl-Hasm Alliance, headed by caretaker Defense Minister Thabit al-Abbasi, holdnine and eight points respectively, with Al-Hamdani describing Al-Azm as thestrongest Sunni bloc in terms of parliamentary representation.
He also denied reports of changes orrotations involving Sunni-held ministries, stressing that existingunderstandings remain intact pending a final agreement.
On Thursday, al-Zaidi formallysubmitted the government’s 14-point ministerial program to Parliament Speaker Haibetal-Halbousi ahead of a parliamentary session expected to vote on the cabinetearly next week.
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Negotiations over ministries arecontinuing under a “points” system tied to parliamentary representation, inwhich blocs require at least 10 seats to secure service ministries and morethan 15 seats for sovereign portfolios. Cabinet posts in Iraq are traditionallydistributed through political agreements under the muhasasa system, a post-2003power-sharing arrangement among the country’s major political and ethnicgroups.
According to circulating politicalunderstandings, the next government is expected to consist of 22 ministries,including 12 allocated to the Shiite Coordination Framework, the largest blocin Parliament, and four to Kurdish parties.
