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On Thursday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that he has enough support to form a coalition government after the election, held on Wednesday, but reiterated that he would leave his post if need be. Maliki is seeking a third term in office, following the first elections in Iraq after the withdrawal of US troops. He faces significant opposition from the minority Sunni Arabs and Kurds as well as his own Shiite community.
Maliki has often been criticized by his rivals over a pronounced deterioration in security and regarding high unemployment, rampant corruption and “insufficient” improvement in basic services in Iraq. But with the vote counting having just started and results not expected for another two weeks, Maliki said “we have an ability to pass the 165 (seat threshold)” required for a majority government and that he and his allies “have confidence that we will achieve a political majority”.
After elections in 2005 and 2010, Iraqi leaders had agreed to form national unity governments which included all of the country’s major communal groups and political parties. Maliki promised that he will not go down the same track again after the current elections.
“I am warning against going back to the sectarian (quotas), and I will not be part of it”, he said, insisting that he would give up his post if he could not form a government. “My mother did not give birth to me as a minister or a prime minister. I am not interested in this subject (of being prime minister). At the same time… if I were the choice, I would consider myself obliged to respond”.
Maliki’s bloc is considered as a favourite to win the most seats, but analysts agree that no single party will have an outright majority, and that Iraq will need to form a coalition government with political alliances between the various communal groups. Further complicating matters is the fact that the three positions of power, the Speaker of the Parliament, typically a Sunni Arab, the Prime Minister, usually a Shiite, and the President, normally a Kurd, are often negotiated as a part of the package.
