No end in sight: Iraq's Parliament drowns in delays and disagreements

Shafaq News

19 hours ago

Shafaq News
With fewer than a week remaining until the scheduled end of Iraq's parliamentary recess, mounting political tensions and strategic stalling tactics are drawing renewed scrutiny. Multiple lawmakers have confirmed the existence of internal pressures by party leaders and bloc heads to delay parliamentary sessions and obstruct legislative progress.
The motivations, they warn, are deeply political—ranging from efforts to avoid passing controversial laws to shielding the government and certain factions from public embarrassment ahead of national elections.
This institutional stagnation comes at a critical moment. Iraq's legislature, formally in recess until July 9, has already missed a series of opportunities to address pending legislation, including laws with direct implications for security, governance, and electoral integrity. According to observers, the political inertia reflects a broader dysfunction rooted in partisan interests and a long-standing system of consensus politics that many believe has paralyzed representative governance.
Laws Blocked, Accountability Avoided
Parliamentary sources, including members of the Finance Committee and independent MPs, have confirmed that both contentious and non-contentious laws remain frozen. Among the most prominent examples is the draft law on the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). According to MP Mohammed Qutayba al-Bayati, secretary-general of the National Braves Party, the PMF law faces deep intra-Shiite disagreements over core provisions related to leadership and retirement regulations.
Al-Bayati told Shafaq News that the legislature is unlikely to convene before the scheduled end of its recess, despite growing calls from lawmakers to resume parliamentary work. Even if the Council of Representatives reconvenes promptly, the fate of the PMF law—as well as other key legislation—will hinge on political consensus. 'These laws will not be passed without a clear political agreement among faction leaders,' he emphasized.
Beyond the PMF file, other proposals affecting broad sectors of the population have also stalled. Al-Bayati pointed out that even laws with no direct political controversy remain suspended. Among them is the federal general budget for 2025, which the parliament has yet to receive from the government. The delay is particularly striking given that more than half the fiscal year has already passed.
Finance Committee member Moeen al-Kadhimi anticipated that the budget draft would be submitted by early July following Cabinet approval. Yet another committee member, Jamal Kocher, expressed doubt over whether the government will forward the budget to parliament at all. Kocher raised concerns about the potential use of the budget process as a platform for electoral promotion, implying that political calculations could again override institutional obligations.
Coordinated Absences, Factional Maneuvering
For Independent MP Haitham al-Fahd, the paralysis is not coincidental. He attributed the legislative deadlock to deliberate pressure from political leaders seeking to prevent sensitive laws from surfacing before the elections.
Speaking to Shafaq News, he confirmed that numerous MPs have recently called for parliament to interrupt its recess and resume sessions to vote on urgent laws, including the PMF statute, electoral commission restructuring, and other regulatory matters.
However, political leadership appears to be withholding support. 'Some of these laws could put the government or specific parties in a difficult position,' al-Fahd explained, 'which is why there is visible hesitation, if not outright avoidance.' He added that there are real and varied motives behind the obstruction of sessions. Among them is the decision by some Kurdish MPs to boycott proceedings in response to the federal government's failure to release salaries to the Kurdistan Region.
Others, he noted, are avoiding parliament to block potential amendments to the election law—seen by some as a threat to their electoral prospects. A third group reportedly fears that pushing through legislation like the PMF law could increase pressure on the prime minister, who is already navigating a dense political minefield.
'We remain firmly committed to passing priority laws, especially those on the PMF,' al-Fahd said. 'But internal bloc dynamics and political maneuvering continue to prevent the Council from doing its job.'
Parliament's Diminished Role
According to political analyst Mujashaa al-Tamimi, the dysfunction runs far deeper than the current recession. In his view, Iraq's parliament has increasingly taken on the form of a 'silent institution'—a body that exists in name but has lost much of its legislative and oversight capacity. Al-Tamimi attributes this decline to the entrenchment of ethno-sectarian power-sharing arrangements, or "muhasasa," which have institutionalized elite pacts at the expense of genuine deliberative governance.
He told Shafaq News that the State Administration Coalition—the post-October 2021 political framework composed of major Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish factions—has prioritized political balance over state-building. 'Decision-making has been reduced to behind-the-scenes agreements based on partisan interest…effectively neutralizing parliament's role in passing strategic laws that impact citizens' daily lives.'
Al-Tamimi also recalled the alternative proposed by the head of the Patriotic Shiite Movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, who in 2021 called for abandoning the consensus model in favor of a 'national majority government.'
Al-Sadr's vision aimed to empower parliament to hold the executive accountable and legislate independently of elite bargaining. However, the collapse of that project—and the reassertion of consensus politics—has returned the legislature to a state of inertia.
Ongoing divisions among political blocs, coupled with the absence of genuine reform willpower, have, in al-Tamimi's words, 'reduced the parliament to a procedural entity without real influence.' The consequence, he warned, is a sharp decline in public trust and a hollowing of Iraq's democratic institutions.
Missed Sessions, Electoral Risks
The evidence of legislative underperformance is quantifiable. Shafaq News conducted a review in April 2025 showing that Iraq's fifth parliamentary session had completed only 51 percent of its scheduled sittings, as mandated by the Council's internal bylaws. Since January 2022, the Council has convened only 132 sessions—far below the required standard of 256 annual sittings, or eight sessions per month across two four-month legislative terms.
This legislative absenteeism has real implications. The delay in passing the federal budget, electoral law amendments, and public sector reforms is stalling governance across all levels. The lack of parliamentary action is also threatening the timeline for the next general election. Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission has scheduled the upcoming vote for November 2025, following a prior postponement linked to legal and procedural delays.
Failure to resolve the legal framework and pass key laws—especially concerning the electoral commission and voting procedures—could jeopardize the election's credibility or even delay it further. Political observers caution that absent a fundamental change in institutional behavior, the upcoming polls may replicate past patterns of low turnout, fragmented participation, and disputed outcomes.