Maliki Takes Bid to Retain Power to Iraqi Courts

Though the military deployments around Baghdad don’t seem to be an imminent coup, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki doesn’t seem to be any closer to relinquishing power, and is simply trying to take the matter to the Iraqi courts first.

Maliki is claiming that the appointment of Hayder Abadi was unconstitutional because he is the leader of the State of Law coalition, which won the plurality in the election. He also claims President Masum is staging a “coup” by appointing someone else.

The legal underpinnings of this claim are unclear, as after the last election the Iraqiya Party won the plurality, and Maliki was still declared PM-designate even though, by his current argument, that should’ve gone to Ayad Allawi.

Moreover, Abadi, like Maliki, is actually a member of State of Law and the Dawa Party, and was chosen by the Iraqi National Alliance as a preferred “consensus candidate” primarily because Maliki was so unpopular.