Obama: Time for Iraqis to Form Govt Without Delay

Says Party Leaders Have 'Constitutional Responsibility' to Form Govt

by Jason Ditz, July 22, 2010

In a demand which has been often repeated by administration officials, President Barack Obama today demanded that the various Iraqi political parties form a government.

Citing “Iraq’s successful democratic election” on March 7, President Obama declared that the leaders have a “constitutional responsibility” to form a government without any further delays.

Though the election does appear to have been largely without incident, particularly compared to the disastrously corrupt election in Afghanistan just months prior, Iraq’s status as a parliamentary republic suggests that there is no such “responsibility” in its constitution.

Indeed it is not entirely unheard of for a successful election to end with a hung parliament and the need to hold another election. This appears increasingly likely to be the case in Iraq, as none of the three major parties could form a government without the help of at least one of the others, and none seems willing to be the “secondary” party in a coalition government.

Though this result might be considered perfectly normal in such a system, it would be incredibly inconvenient for the Obama Administration, which has to contend with an increasingly ineffectual caretaker government while trying to spin the ongoing war as “improving.“

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