Iraqi President Barham Salih, 2019. Photo: AFP
BAGHDAD,— Iraqi President Barham Salih on Thursday expressed his readiness to submit resignation to the parliament after he refused to appoint the candidate Asad al-Eidani as prime minister-designate, the Iraqi official television reported.
In a letter sent to the Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi, Salih rejected the nomination of al-Eidani by the Building coalition, formed by some winning blocs after the 2018 parliamentary elections, the state-run Iraqiya channel said.
He said that because the constitution does not give him the right to reject nominees for the premiership, he was ready to quit.
Salih also said the nomination of al-Eidani was not welcomed by the protesters.
“Out of my desire to stop blood and maintain peace, and with due respect to Asaad al-Edani, I refuse to nominate him,” Salih said. “Therefore I put my willingness to resign the post of president to members of parliament so that they decide as representatives of the people what they see fit.”
Political and parliamentary moves must always reflect the public will, meet the requirements of social security and peace, while providing good governance in line with people’s aspirations and sacrifices, Salih said in his letter.
According to the Iraqi constitution, the largest coalition in parliament should nominate a candidate for the vacant post to President Barham Salih who will task the new prime minister-designate to form a new cabinet.
Salih’s letter came amid a political row over who would be chosen as a new prime minister-designate to form an interim government ahead of early parliament elections.
Earlier this month protesters in Baghdad and across the southern provinces are calling for Iraqi president Barham Salih’s resignation. A protest organizer said that they wanted the “three presidencies” to step down, referring to President Barham Salih, caretaker Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi [already resigned], and Speaker of the Council of Representatives Mohammed al-Halbusi.
Mass protests have gripped Iraq since Oct. 1 and protesters, most of them young, are demanding an overhaul of a political system they see as profoundly corrupt and keeping most Iraqis in poverty. More than 450 people have been killed.
Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi resigned last month as the protests continued, but he has remained in office in a caretaker capacity.
Sources in Salih’s office said the president left Baghdad on Thursday for his hometown of Sulaimani city in the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq and that he would deliver a televised speech later.
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