Iraq president says PM willing to quit, as protester calling for ‘We want total change’
Thu 31 October 2019:
Iraq president says PM willing to quit, vows poll after new law
Iraq’s president has promised to hold a snap parliamentary election once a new law is passed and said the country’s beleaguered Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi has agreed to step down if a replacement was found.
The announcement by President Barham Salih on Thursday came as Iraq’s political leaders are scrambling to produce a solution to mounting protests calling for economic reform, a government overhaul and an end to the country’s quota-based power-sharing system.
“The prime minister announced that he accepted to submit his resignation if parties agree on an adequate alternative within the context of the constitution and the law to avoid a constitutional gap,” Salih said in a televised addressed.
“I am personally meeting and consulting with the various parties and blocs to achieve reforms within the context of the law to maintain the security of Iraq.”
He added that a new electoral law will be presented to Parliament next week.
‘We want total change’
Thousands of protesters thronged the centre of the capital, Baghdad, in a show of fury at a political elite they see as deeply corrupt, beholden to foreign powers and responsible for mass unemployment as well as shambolic public services.
“We want a total change of government, we don’t want one or two officials fired and replaced with other corrupt ones. We want to completely uproot the government,” Hussein, who did not give a last name, told Reuters news agency in Baghdad’s Tahrir Square.
“They think we will protest for one or two days then go home. No, we are staying here until the government is uprooted,” he added.
Others called for Iraq’s religious leaders to step away from politics, too.
“We don’t want them, so let them leave. We also don’t want the clerics – they have no business in politics,” Hoda, a 59-year-old, told AFP news agency.
Protests also took place in seven other provinces, mostly in Iraq’s southern Shia heartland. Thousands gathered in Nasiriya, Diwaniyahand Basra while hundreds hit the streets in Hilla, Samawa, and the holy city of Najaf.
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