Mustafa Darraji – researcher
Introduction
Since 2003, successive Governments in Iraq have inherited many problems and challenges, including those inherited from the previous regime, including new problems that accompanied regime change. The transition phase should have included plans that address many of the problems associated with the transition from dictatorship to democracy.
Unfortunately, the Iraqi Government has not been able to solve these problems and has continued to deport them from one Government to another. These problems are increasing with each Government that is formed. Mr. Al-Sudani’s Government now faces many internal and external challenges that previous Governments have been unable to solve, not to mention the new challenges posed by the internal and external environment. The result of local and regional interactions, and in various cases all these challenges require rational policies and bold plans; to contain them, including those requiring prompt and immediate action; to avoid their impact on the Government and society, including significant challenges that need to be established in long-term plans and strategies to address them.
In this paper, we are trying to highlight some important challenges facing the Government for 2023, which require quick solutions; Because they constitute challenges and threats to the work of the Government, to the success of its work, and to its survival in the period specified for it, and as a result of the interconnectedness of internal and external challenges in the causes and treatments, we will explain the internal and external challenges that the Iraqi Government will face in 2023, and classify them as follows:
First: Iraq’s internal challenges 2023.
There are several internal challenges inherited from previous Governments, challenges created by developments in societies, technological development, through the fall of the political system in 2003, and the fragile political process, which begins with political problems and extends the list to include most of the joints of society and the State, all of which have been unanimously agreed upon by a number of those interested in Iraqi political affairs; because of their importance, and should be given priority; to be addressed over the coming years, the most important of which are:
Elections
One of the most prominent challenges facing Mr. Al-Sudani’s Government is elections, regardless of whether they are representative or local; Because Mr. Al-Sudani committed himself to his government program, which was voted on by the Iraqi Council of Representatives on 27 October 2022: (Holding provincial elections, amending the Law on General Parliamentary Elections in 3 months and holding early elections in 2005). This statement or agreement on the government programme represents numerous obstacles, including the fact that the High Electoral Commission has linked any early elections to the fulfilment of two conditions, according to the statements of the member of the Electoral Commission, Imad Jamil: (they) the possibility of holding early elections in a year that depends on the completion of their own law and the provision of funds, so we await the law on which the next elections will be held, as well as the provision of funds; To see how much time it takes to conduct the electoral process), moreover, the frame leaders have a desire to amend the election law, consideration of manual counting and electronic screening, as well as review of constituency distribution as well as addressing the issue of elections for Iraqis abroad who were denied a vote in the last election, and the desire to reintroduce the old electoral law known as the St. Lego Act which divides Iraq into 18 large constituencies among the number of governorates.
