BAGHDAD: Iraq’s main Shiite alliance, which holds a parliamentary majority, endorsed on Saturday former prime minister and powerbroker Nouri Al-Maliki as the country’s next premier.
The Coordination Framework, an alliance of Shiite factions with varying links to Iran, said in a statement that it “decided, by majority vote, to nominate” Al-Maliki for the position “as the candidate of the largest parliamentary bloc.”
The statement spoke of Al-Maliki’s “political and administrative experience and his record in running the state.”
A shrewd politician, Al-Maliki, 75, has long been a central figure in Iraq’s politics and its only two-term prime minister (2006-2014) since the US invasion of 2003, which ended decades of rule by the autocratic Sunni president Saddam Hussein.
Since the invasion and by convention in Iraq, a Shiite Muslim holds the powerful post of prime minister, a Sunni is parliament speaker, and the largely ceremonial presidency goes to a Kurd. After Iraq’s November general election, the Coordination Framework, which includes Al-Maliki, formed the majority bloc.
