The recent bloody protests in Basra have lowered Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's chances of serving a second term in office. The political blocs and influential parties agree that Abadi has failed to manage the Basra crisis, and they now call for a new face for the post of prime minister.

Hadi al-Amiri, the head of the Fatah Alliance, met Sept. 12 with Shiite cleric and head of the Sairoon Alliance Muqtada al-Sadr to discuss the possible alliance that would make them eligible to form a new government. Sadr formed the Reform and Reconstruction Coalition with Abadi previously, but it seems that he is looking for an alternative given Abadi's current position.

The office of Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, issued a statement Sept. 10 calling for selecting a new prime minister who is competent and courageous to run a country plagued by rampant corruption and a weak state system.

The statement said, “The [Shiite] authority told the various [political] parties … that it will not support any new prime minister chosen from the politicians who have been in power in the past years, whether he was affiliated with a party or independent." The statement claimed that "most of the people have lost hope in any of these figures to achieve the desired improvement of the situation and to fight corruption.” It continued, “If a new figure endowed with competence, integrity, courage and firmness is chosen, it would be possible to communicate with the new prime minister on the country’s best interests; otherwise, the authority would maintain its approach of boycotting the country's government officials.”