Iraqi prime minister resigns amid ongoing protests

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s parliament voted on Sunday to accept the resignation of Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, following weeks of violent anti-government protests.

Abdul Mahdi’s decision to quit on Friday came after a call by Iraq’s top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani for parliament to consider withdrawing its support for Abdul Mahdi’s government to stem the violence.

“The Iraqi parliament will ask the president of state to nominate a new prime minister,” a statement from parliament’s media office said.

Lawmakers said Abdul Mahdi’s government, including the prime minister himself, would stay on in a caretaker capacity following Sunday’s vote until a new government was chosen.

Under the constitution, President Barham Salih is expected to ask the largest bloc in parliament to nominate a new prime minister to form a government, a move expected to trigger weeks of political wrangling.

Iraqi forces have killed nearly 400 mostly young, unarmed demonstrators since mass anti-government protests broke out on Oct. 1. More than a dozen members of the security forces have also died in clashes.

Abdul Mahdi’s resignation, though welcomed by protesters, is not expected to end the demonstrations, which have called for an overhaul of a political system accused of being corrupt and keeping most of the population in poverty, without opportunity.

Demonstrations are continuing in Baghdad and other southern regions and security forces killed one protester and wounded nine others near a key bridge in the capital on Sunday, police and a medical source said.

An Iraqi court sentenced a police officer to death after convicting him of killing demonstrators, the first such sentence in the two months of deadly civil unrest.

The unrest poses the biggest challenge for Iraq since Islamic State insurgents seized swathes of Iraqi and Syrian territory in 2014. It pits mostly young, disaffected protesters against a government accused of squandering Iraq’s oil wealth while infrastructure and living standards deteriorate.