Less than 24 hours after its installation, hundreds gather in Dhi Qar to protest al-Sudani's government
Shafaq News/ Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in al-Haboubi square downtown Dhi Qar's capital city, Nasiriyah, to protest against Mohammad Shiyaa al-Sudani's cabinet and "the way it was formed".
Yesterday, Iraq's parliament approved the government of Prime Minister Mohammad Shiyaa al-Sudani after more than a year of political paralysis, but the war-ravaged country seems far from reaching safe shores.
Al-Sudani now faces the gargantuan task of delivering on pledges to fight corruption and offer job opportunities to the country's disaffected youth, all while grappling with an unpredictable political opponent.
Shafaq News Agency correspondent said that the demonstrators carried placards and chanted slogans denouncing the incoming cabinet and its head.
The demonstrators accused al-Sudani of "getting the country back to square one" with the controversial power-sharing formula that has characterized the consecutive governments that have run the country, and they accuse of undermining the economic and security situation.
In a bid to dispel criticism over his pro-Iran political backers in parliament, he has also vowed not to "adopt the polarised politics" of the past that saw Iraq split amongst fiercely rival camps.
The demonstration saw the head of the anti-establishment Emtidad movement, lawmaker Alaa al-Rikabi, and his colleague Falih al-Hilali, among the participants. Al-Rikabi, and other parliamentarians in his bloc, were involved in a fistfight with members of the Coordination Framework's bloc.
The oil-rich has for years suffered rampant corruption preventing the adequate distribution of funds, and analysts predict no imminent end to the country's protracted crises.
