The State of Law Coalition (SLC) led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki today considered the meeting of representatives of political blocs in Najaf yesterday an attempt to get out of the impasse the MPs fell into after identifying the 15-day deadline to withdraw confidence from the PM.
Leader of the Sadrist Movement Muqtada al-Sadr and representatives from the Kurdish Blocs Coalition (KBC) and Iraqiya yesterday finished their meeting in Sadr house in Najaf.

Sadr and three senior leaders - Massoud Barzani, Ayad Allawi and Osama al-Nujaifi - gave Maliki 15 days to make reforms or else they would withdraw confidence from the PM. The 15-day deadline ended on Thursday last week.

Salman al-Moussawi, who is close to Maliki, said "The withdrawal of confidence from the PM can only be done through the Council of Representatives according to article 61 of the Iraqi constitution that includes the interrogation of Maliki and this is difficult to be applied.

"The Iraqi Council of Representatives was unable to withdraw confidence from the electoral committee despite the presence of corruption and mismanagement, so how can it withdraw confidence from the prime minister, whose government made many achievements?"

The Iraqi constitution defines two ways to withdraw confidence from the PM according to article 61. The first involves a request filed by the president and secondly through the Council of Representatives at the request of one fifth of members. Such a request cannot be submitted before the PM is interrogated.

The Council of Representatives may withdraw confidence from the PM by the absolute majority of its members seven days after the submission of the request.




AKnews