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Iraqi Politics: Fine Line Between Debate & Sabotage

November 20, 2008 11:47 AM

By VLADIMIR LOZINSKI, Bureau Chief, ABC News Baghdad

This morning’s parliamentary session opened with shouting and catcalling as the speaker of the House attempted to read again the Troops Withdrawal Agreement bill. The proceedings were carried live on Iraqi television.

“We don’t need this chaos. The Iraqi people need to understand what we are trying to pass in this bill,” he said as legislators banged their desks and yelled at the speaker for a timeout.

Members of the Sadr bloc, opposed to the agreement, interrupted and constantly demanded to be heard. Speaker of the House Mahmoud al Mashadani pleaded, saying, “Give me a break. We are trying to work here.”

Wednesday’s Iraqi parliament session witnessed scuffles between the Iraqi foreign minister’s security personnel and Sadrist legislators. Anarchy took hold under the parliament dome as it began its second and final reading and Sadrist members pushed water glasses and flower vases off tables. The broadcast was pulled off the air less than an hour into the debate.

Today Iraqis watched their politicians continue the debate. Ahmed Al Masoudi of the Sadr Party and elements in the Shiite bloc, who wish to stall the vote, disrupted the reading of the bill, yelling their objections as well as demanding that the process be broadcast in full this time.

The Iraqi parliament is no stranger to controversy.

Earlier this year Mashadani told a female legislator, “You should not speak. You are a woman.” There are 73 female parliamentarians. Chaos ensued.

The delays in the reading of this bill are causing some concern here. The 275-seat parliament needs a simple majority of one to pass legislation but needs a quorum of 138 to vote. Iraqis are already leaving for hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, and parliament is expected to go into recess in early December for the Muslim holiday of Eid. There is a fear that there may not be enough members left in Baghad to pass the vote.

Lawmakers who support the pact said they were worried in particular about the Sadrist bloc and their allies delaying the reading and vote on the bill. The Sadrists reject any agreement in principle.The United Iraqi Alliance and the Kurdish Alliance, the second largest party, generally supports the legislation.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Wednesday that the U.S. government’s focus was on "plan A," referring to the agreement. "All we need to do is to have them -- have the reading, let the parliament debate, as you would in a democratic society, and then have a vote," she said. There was no reference to a “plan B” although the United States can ask for an extension of the current U.N. mandate, which is set to expire at the end of the year.

Shiite leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani is distancing himself from the commotion and has asked the parliamentarians to vote in the interest of the Iraqi people. "You should be up to your historial responsibility in front of God and the Iraqi people," he said in a communique earlier this week. He insists that it should be a true Iraqi process without outside intervention. The process this morning is somewhat volatile... or lively... or truly Iraqi... depending on how you look at it.

Read more blogs by Vladimir Lozinski

November 20, 2008 in Vladimir Lozinski | Permalink | User Comments (3)

User Comments

Posted by: Boris | Nov 20, 2008 6:14:35 PM

Posted by: MBell_TX | Nov 21, 2008 12:08:42 AM

Posted by: esi | Dec 20, 2008 9:26:35 AM

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