Agence France Presse
BAGHDAD: Iraqi parliament speaker Salim al-Juburi Monday called on lawmakers to approve the prime minister’s ambitious reform plan aimed at addressing popular anger over corruption and poor services.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi Sunday proposed a series of measures to curb corruption, streamline the government and improve services after weeks of protests and a call from Iraq’s top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for drastic change.
Juburi “requests that the political blocs vote in the session tomorrow (Tuesday) on the government reform [plan]” and approve it, his office said.
Amid a major heat wave that has seen temperatures top 50 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit), protesters have railed against the poor quality of services, especially power outages that leave just a few hours of government-supplied electricity per day.
Thousands of people have turned out in Baghdad and various cities in the Shiite south to vent their anger at the authorities.
Various parties and politicians have sought to align themselves with the protesters – at least in their rhetoric – to take advantage of the movement and mitigate the risk to themselves.
While people have protested over services and corruption before, those demonstrations failed to bring about significant change.
And even with popular pressure and Sistani’s backing, the entrenched nature of corruption in Iraq and the fact that parties across the political spectrum benefit from it will make any efforts to change the system extremely difficult.