Confidence vote on Iraqi finance minister postponed

By Muayad al-Tarfi

BAGHDAD (AA) – Iraq’s parliament on Thursday postponed a planned vote on whether or not to withdraw confidence from Finance Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

"Parliament postponed the vote to Sept. 20 after failing to reach the necessary quorum of lawmakers," Hassan al-Khalati, an MP representing the Shia Muatin ("Citizen") bloc, told Anadolu Agency.

According to al-Khalati, 141 MPs attended Thursday’s session, while 165 are required to achieve quorum.

Al-Khalati attributed the assembly’s failure to reach quorum to the fact that a number of MPs were currently performing the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, while others were absent for various other reasons.

He went on to suggest that at least some parliamentary blocs stayed away from the session in order to stymie the scheduled vote.

Last month, parliamentarians grilled Zebari -- who faces a number of graft charges -- regarding alleged corruption within his ministry.

In recent months, Iraq has seen numerous popular demonstrations, mainly by followers of prominent Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, to demand an end to widespread government corruption.

Last year, arrest warrants were issued for 18 government ministers -- along with another 2,700 state officials -- for alleged corruption, parliament’s ethics committee announced in March.

Iraq ranked 161st out of 168 countries on Transparency International's 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index, with the first-ranked country being the least corrupt and 168th the most corrupt.