“An inauspicious start”… Rights groups threaten to boycott the confidence vote session for al-Zidi’s government
“An inauspicious start”… Rights groups threaten to boycott the confidence vote session for al-Zidi’s government
2026-05-13
Shafaq News – Baghdad
On Wednesday, MP Miqdad al-Khafaji, from the parliamentary rights bloc, criticized the mechanism for presenting the cabinet of the designated government, questioning how the House of Representatives could grant confidence to a government whose members do not know the names of the candidates for ministerial portfolios or their CVs.
Al-Khafaji told Shafaq News Agency that this matter “is an unsuccessful start for the government,” noting that the government “is built on the foundations of partisan, sectarian and national quotas like its predecessors, far from the standards of competence and integrity.”
He added that the bloc hopes that the names and CVs of the candidates will be presented to the members of the House of Representatives 48 hours before the date of the confidence vote session, in order to verify their competence and integrity.
He explained that setting a date for the confidence vote session before the MPs had seen the names of the candidates and their CVs was an “unfortunate surprise,” as he put it.
He indicated that there was an agreement with some members of the House of Representatives to boycott the confidence vote session if they were not satisfied with the names of the candidates for ministerial portfolios.
The Iraqi parliament’s presidency has officially set tomorrow, Thursday, May 14, as the date for voting on the new government’s cabinet headed by Ali al-Zidi.
The scheduling of the session comes after a political debate that continued in recent days regarding the timing of the cabinet announcement, amid ongoing disagreements between some political forces over the distribution of ministerial portfolios.
Al-Zaydi was tasked by the President of the Republic with forming the government on April 27, 2026, succeeding Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani.
shafaq.com
