Contrary to what one would glean from Abadi’s incessant calls for a ‘technocratic Iraq’, the drive was abandoned long ago. Political bickering has squandered the prime minister's only peace offering to a nation that believes it has been robbed of its rights and left without justice.
The national poverty rate has leapt up by an estimated 30 percent, while unemployment has grown by an additional 8 perecent. A quarter of the adult population is unemployed, while hopes others previously held onto have dissolved beyond recognition. Iraq’s fiscal deficit has inflated to a frightful $25 billion, while men Abadi fired last year still occupy the same senior government roles from which they extract rounded sums of cash to line their pockets with.
In early October, a top Iraqi court overturned Abadi’s decision to abolish the country’s three vice-presidential posts. Judicial spokesman Abdulsatar Bayraqdar declared that the attempt to do so was “unconstitutional”. “The existence of one or more vice presidents of the republic is required by the constitution" as he wrote in an official statement.