BAGHDAD — As the Iraqi parliament witnesses significant political disputes over ministerial portfolios between the Building Coalition led by Nouri al-Maliki and Hadi al-Amiri, and the Reform and Construction Coalition led by Muqtada al-Sadr and Ammar al-Hakim, another set of disputes has surfaced over the posts of governors of Baghdad, Basra, Najaf, Wasit and Babylon.

The mandate of the current provincial councils — constitutionally tasked with choosing a governor — ended in April 2017, and the provincial elections have been postponed repeatedly. In other words, these councils are currently illegal.

The conflict over the presidency of local governments reflects a political conviction whereby setting an imminent date for local elections has become an uphill battle. Based on this conviction, political parties are seeking to substitute the current governors in a bid to ensure continued influence in those governorates.

In the capital, 10 days into the election of Fadel al-Shuwaili, a leader in the Sairoon Alliance backed by the Sadrist movement, as governor of Baghdad, the Baghdad provincial council held Dec. 22 an extraordinary session in which it revoked Shuwaili’s election and chose Falah al-Jazairi as a new governor from the State of Law Coalition led by Nouri al-Maliki.