Diplomatist Magazine Diplomatist August 2018 | Page 39

SPOTLIGHT
IRAQ’S 2018 PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS AND
THE JOCKEYING TO FORM A NEW GOVERNMENT:
DOMESTIC PROSPECTS AND REGIONAL RAMIFICATIONS
BY DR. NAIM JOSEPH SALEM*
F
ifteen years following the American invasion and
occupation of Iraq in April 2003, Iraq remains a shattered
state as a consequence of the ongoing occupation and
the ensuing widespread terror which has racked the country
and devastated it humanly and economically. The Americans
who occupied Iraq created a political system predicated on
sectarian and ethnic distribution of political power – unlike the
United States itself, (which is much more diverse ethnically
and religiously than Iraq), yet political and bureaucratic posts
in it are open to all citizens. One example on that is President
Barak Obama whose ethnic black minority constitutes only 12
percent of the population, but that did not preclude him from
becoming President and the Commander in-Chief. However,
in Iraq the major political posts following occupation were
allocated along ethnic lines: the post of prime minister is to
be held by a Shiite, the president is to be a Kurd, and the
speaker of parliament a Sunnite.
The Politics of Iraq: Before and After 2003
The politics of the post-2003 Iraq have been very
much shaped by American occupation of the country.
The occupation, which started with about 200,000 U.S.
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 6 • Issue 8 • August 2018, Noida • 39