After Al-Sadr's withdrawal, will the oversight role of parliamentarians in Iraq end?

After a year of political impasse reflected in bloody violence and continuous tension, Iraq took the first step towards getting out of the political crisis with the election of a new president of the republic and the appointment of a new prime minister. But many challenges still lie ahead for the country.

On Thursday, the Iraqi parliament, which is dominated by forces loyal to Iran, succeeded in electing former Water ResourcesMinister Abdul Latif Rashid as president of the republic.

Rashid quickly appointed a new prime minister, Mohammad Shia Al-Sudani, in a move that put an end to a year-long institutional paralysis with the failure of major political forces to agree since the legislative elections in October 2021.

However, these positive steps were met with a great challenge with the announcement of Sadrist movement leader Muqtada al-Sadr on Saturday that neither he nor any of his followers would participate in the current government.

Al-Sadr's decision was considered by some observers and analysts as the beginning of the dominance of interests in the Iraqi parliament amid the weakness of the opposition. They pointed out that the absence of the Sadrist movement would end the role of oversight representatives as the leader of one of the most significant political currents in Iraq who is able to mobilize tens of thousands of his supporters with one tweet.

Despite the weakness of the real opposition in the Iraqi parliament since the launch of its first session in 2006, some political blocs that participated in the formation of successive Iraqi governments were playing this role, especially the Sadrist movement.

Observers believe that the Sadrist movement played this role in previous legislative sessions, despite its representation in the Iraqi government to express the problems of its voters, most of whom are simple and poor Shiites. This is what gave some vitality to the work of the House of Representatives.

It was clear the Sadrist movement played a positive role in pressuring the rest of the political blocs to pass some laws and legislation demanded by the October demonstrators in 2019, including amending the election law, dissolving provincial councils, reducing the legal retirement age, and others.

In the political scene that is currently moving in the absence of the Sadrist movement, the political opposition, especially most of the independent parliamentarians, has turned into supporters of the Coordination Framework in forming the government, with the exception of some representatives of the Emtedad Movement and the New Generation. Their numbers do not exceed the fingers of one hand.

This may make the Iraqi parliament a complete reflection of the Iraqi government, especially with news of the participation of all the current blocs in parliament in forming the government and managing state institutions, according to Al Hurra.

Extension of previous stages

Professor of Political Science at Al-Mustansiriyah University in Iraq Salem Al-Amiri said that “the current parliament will be an extension of the previous stages because the political forces do not believe in the opposition and sometimes suppress it by force of arms, and this is what happened in Tishreenmovement.”

“The legislation issued by the parliament does not serve the citizen; for example, there is no health insurance in a country whose annual imports exceed $120 billion, and there is no real plan to reform education. These matters are usually adopted by the opposition, which in the developed world means a shadow government that monitors the level of performance. This shadow government is necessary for any real country,” he added to Jusoor Post.

“The opposition must contribute to modifying the path. The forces holding power must believe that everyone should participate in it, and the ministries should be distributed on the basis of seats,” he continued.

Lack of accountability for those responsible

Regarding the possibility of holding accountable and evaluating the performance of the upcoming ministries with no opposition, Al-Amiri explained that “the plans for developing the fields of health and education and all previous stages are reproduced and did not provide any development from the previous stage. Thus, we do not expect accountability, especially since those accused of corruption have not been held accountable since 2003.”

The professor of political science considered that the idea of opposition in the Iraqi political mentality means treason, and therefore it does not exist. Those who oppose them are distorted by the online armies that each party has against the other.

Absence of majority and minority 

For his part, the director of the Iraq Center for Strategic Studies, Ghazi Faisal, believes that “parliamentary democracy depends on the equation of balance between the majority that makes up the government and the opposition, which plays a fundamental role in critiquing and evaluating legislation and government policies and its capabilities to implement the program approved at the level of the House of Representatives and the exercise of the oversight process.”

He told Jusoor Post that“because of the systematic policies that have been followed since 2003 until this day, the parliament's performance is summarized in consensual policies without any opposition or criticism.”

He pointed out that “the situation is similar to the totalitarian parliament that appears in authoritarian regimes and the one-party system.”

Faisal explained that “the current situation in the parliament results in consensual policies and decisions, the exchange of interests between parties, and the distribution of positions, quotas, and centers of influence in ministries and ministerial portfolios according to the numbers available for each party.”

“The Iraqi parliament does not have a critical vision in the ministries, and therefore there is a serious problem in the consensual equation because the cabinet is not actually led by the prime minister, but by the parties that the ministries follow,” he continued, adding,“This model is unique and does not exist in the countries of the democratic world, and therefore the ministries are far from accountability and criticism.”

Parliament without opposition

According to Iraqi journalist Mohammad Abu Al-Fadl, “the Iraqi parliament has become of one color after the absence of the Sadrist movement, which used to play this role, even if timidly while it was in the parliament.”

He explained to Jusoor Post that “the withdrawal of the Sadrist movement and the transformation of most of the independents into loyalists to the Coordination Framework or agreeing with its steps to form the government ended any hope of real opposition among the current parliamentarians.”

Abu Al-Fadlpointed out that “the current climate in the parliament is close to that of the 2010 parliament in which the comprehensive consensus led to several problems that the country experienced.”

“The Iraqi experience seems strange because the Sadrist movement is playing the role of the opposition, but it is better than complete absence and may prevent the expansion of some political forces in all the state's security and economic institutions without oversight or clear rejection,” he said.

“The large number of participants in the government of Al-Sudani will make it a broad consensus government with which it may end any oversight role for the representatives,” he added.