The race for the government palace: New names enter the fray, and Al-Shatri bids an early farewell.
The race for the government palace: New names enter the fray, and Al-Shatri bids an early farewell.
2025-11-29 03:51
Shafaq News – Baghdad
A source in the committee evaluating candidates for the position of Prime Minister, affiliated with the Coordination Framework, revealed on Saturday that there are new names nominated for the position of the new Iraqi government, indicating that the chances of the head of the intelligence service, Hamid al-Shatri, have declined, due to the unwillingness of parties within the framework to assign the position to a security figure.
The source told Shafaq News Agency that “the committee responsible for studying the resumes of a number of candidates found that the nominated names come from different parliamentary blocs, others from multiple parties, as well as some independent candidates,” indicating that “most of these do not meet the criteria for competing for the position of Prime Minister.”
He noted “the presence of a number of prominent new candidates who have joined the shortlist, most notably the caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, the head of the State of Law Coalition Nouri al-Maliki, and the head of the Accountability and Justice Commission Bassem al-Badri, in addition to the governor of Basra, Asaad al-Eidani, who recently entered the competition, with a strong likelihood that the head of the intelligence service, Hamid al-Shatri, will be excluded.”
For her part, MP Ibtisam Al-Hilali, from the State of Law Coalition, told Shafaq News Agency that the number of names submitted to the Supreme Committee formed by the Coordination Framework Council does not exceed 15 names, stressing that what is being presented in some media outlets and social media sites is inaccurate.
Al-Hilali added that the Supreme Committee will begin in the coming days to interview the candidates and select three of them as the most suitable to assume the position of Prime Minister, and their names will be submitted to the Coordinating Framework Council to choose one of them.
According to her, Nouri al-Maliki, the leader of the State of Law Coalition, is the most likely and suitable candidate to assume the position of Prime Minister in the Republic of Iraq, indicating that there is support and endorsement from Sunni and Kurdish forces for him to take over the position.
The coordinating framework had previously specified the conditions and criteria that must be met by candidates for the position of head of the new government, most notably that he must not be the leader of a political bloc.
It is worth noting that the Independent High Electoral Commission in Iraq announced on November 17, 2025, the final results of the parliamentary elections, revealing that the Development and Reconstruction Coalition, led by outgoing Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, won 46 seats.
The Coordination Framework announced on November 17 the formation of the “largest parliamentary bloc” after the Independent High Electoral Commission announced the final results of the special and general voting.
On the same day, the Supreme Federal Court (the highest judicial authority in Iraq) decided to end the work of the House of Representatives and transform the government into a “caretaker government”.
shafaq.com
