Helena Cobban over at Just World News has been running a “Democracy Denied in Iraq” counter for quite some time now. The current time reads 146 days. That’s 146 days since the elections last December, without a finalized Iraqi government.
Now Prime Minister al-Maliki is claiming he’ll have a government formed tomorrow! It still seems questionable, but certainly al-Maliki appears to have a better shot at it than his predecessor al-Jaafari.
I spoke to a friend of mine in Baghdad just a little while ago. He seems optimistic that al-Maliki might make his self-imposed deadline-he promised to seat a government in half the alotted one month deadline.
The main issue we both see is what the results of the Ministers of Interior and Defense will be. These are really the key issues, since security is such a big question right now.
Here is a breakdown of some stories in the press regarding al-Maliki and the upcoming government nominations:
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MAC946024.htm
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C05%5C10%5Cstory_10-5-2006_pg4_1
http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishexaminer/pages/story.aspx-qqqg=sport-qqqm=sport-qqqa=sport-qqqid=2970-qqqx=1.asp
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2006/05/10/2003307173
I’ll be reporting about the view of Iraqi refugees on the government negotiations as soon as I am in town, certainly expect to hear something by tomorrow!
