Amid Infighting, Confidence Vote on New Iraq Government Set for Thursday

Iraqi lawmakers are due to meet Thursday for a confidence vote in the new Iraqi government, an official statement said.

Prime minister-designate Mohammed Shia al-Sudani was chosen earlier this month to form a new government following months of infighting between key Shiite Muslim factions.

A statement Wednesday from the presidency of Iraq’s parliament said the vote was set to begin at 1100 GMT on Thursday.

Sudani and his cabinet need an absolute majority from the 329-seat body.

The confidence vote had been initially planned for last Saturday but was postponed amid haggling over the allocation of cabinet posts, according to lawmakers.

Sudani’s nomination on October 13 raised hopes of an end to a year of political deadlock since Iraq’s last election.

The movement of firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr, Sudani’s rival in Iraq’s majority Shiite camp, has said it will not join the new government.

But the premier-designate has the backing of the Coalition for the Administration of the State, which includes the Coordination Framework, an alliance of powerful pro-Iran Shiite factions that hold 138 out of 329 seats in parliament.

Other members include a Sunni grouping led by parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbussi, and two key Kurdish parties.

Under a power-sharing system adopted in Iraq in the aftermath of the 2003 US-led invasion, cabinet posts are shared between Iraq’s ethnic and confessional communities.

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