BAGHDAD — The Iraqi parliament approved Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his new government Tuesday, ending nine months of torturous political stalemate.
Parliament members voted in favor of al-Maliki and his ministers a day later than planned following last-minute arguments over positions. The quarrels among Iraq’s leading political blocs were resolved Tuesday so that al-Maliki could present most of the members of his 42-member government.
The prime minister left empty the posts of the interior, defense and ministry of state for national security. It was agreed that the interior and defense ministries should be run by an independent figure, but the political blocs have yet to agree on the candidates.
Al-Maliki is responsible for overseeing the security ministries during the interim period. He will appoint someone from inside the ministries to run them until the ministers are chosen, said lawmaker and Deputy Interior Minister Adnan Asadi.
Six other ministries also have yet to be filled, including electricity, planning, and municipalities and public works. All of them have acting ministers from the bloc that is expected to run them. Most of the ministers are expected to be named in the coming days, while the security ministers could take a few weeks to two months to settle.
Al-Maliki has three deputy prime ministers: his political ally and former oil minister, Hussein Shahristani; Roj Nouri Shawis, a Kurd; and Saleh Mutlak, a secular Sunni politician.
Mutlak, who served in the last parliament, was barred from running in the elections last March on the grounds that he had expressed sympathy for the late dictator Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party. Mutlak’s return to the political arena came as part of the broader deal to form the government that ended the bans on the former lawmaker and two other Sunni politicians.
The vote approving the government ended the heated competition since March’s election when al-Maliki, a Shiite Islamist, and former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite, finished in a near electoral tie. Neither side was initially able to form a majority in the 325-member parliament, but in the fall, al-Maliki managed to cobble together a coalition, including the 40-seat parliament bloc of his onetime Shiite rival, cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Soon after, he secured the backing of the Kurds, and then Allawi’s coalition fell in line.
Allawi is expected to head a council with oversight of government policies.
