Maliki’s chief of staff criticizes “procrastination” within the framework: Decide on the prime minister’s position by majority vote.
Maliki’s chief of staff criticizes “procrastination” within the framework: Decide on the prime minister’s position by majority vote.
2026-04-19
Shafaq News – Baghdad
Hisham al-Rikabi, the media office director for Nouri al-Maliki, head of the State of Law Coalition, on Sunday, launched a scathing attack on what he described as the continued “procrastination” within the coordination framework regarding the failure to resolve the position of Prime Minister, denying the circulating news about replacing al-Maliki with another candidate for this position.
Al-Rikabi said in a post on the “X” website that “whoever seeks to form a government within the constitutional deadlines must be firm and make bold decisions, not continue to procrastinate or blame other parties for the delay,” in a clear reference to the framework’s failure to name its candidate for the position of Prime Minister so far, despite the parliament’s election of the new President of the Republic, Nizar Amidi.
He stressed that “the framework is still his candidate for the premiership who was officially announced and has not been replaced,” noting that “what is being circulated about postponing Saturday’s meeting under the pretext of difficulty in communicating with Maliki is a false claim and does not reflect the reality of the situation.”
Al-Rikabi added that “what is required today is a clear decision. Just as the nomination was made by majority vote (i.e., al-Maliki), it can be withdrawn by the same mechanism, and we can proceed towards a new nomination without further delay,” considering that “the stage cannot tolerate further delay.”
This comes in conjunction with an accusation by a deputy close to the leader of the State of Law Coalition, Nouri al-Maliki, on Saturday evening, that the caretaker Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, had disrupted the coordination framework meeting, confirming what Shafaq News Agency had published regarding the postponement of the meeting at al-Sudani’s request.
MP Othman Al-Shaibani said in a statement received by Shafaq News Agency that what he described as “the one clinging to the second term, along with two of the leaders of the framework, disrupted today’s session to buy time and open the door to foreign interventions that affect the national decision.”
Shafaq News Agency was unable to obtain a comment from the Sudanese parliamentary bloc to respond to Al-Shaibani’s claims.
The coordinating framework that includes the ruling Shiite political forces in Iraq failed to hold a “decisive” meeting yesterday, Saturday, at the home of the leader of the Wisdom Movement, Ammar al-Hakim, and it was postponed until next Monday.
These developments come at a time when the government formation process has entered a critical phase, following the election of Nizar Amidi as President of the Republic. This places the largest bloc before a constitutional deadline ending on April 26 to officially present its candidate, amid fears of returning to square one of political deadlock.
shafaq.com
