Iraqi President Barham Saleh discussed with the President of the Construction Alliance, Hadi Al-Amiri, the issue of resolving the nomination of a candidate to head the next government, in conjunction with the escalation of demonstrations by protesters after their deadline granted to the authorities to respond to their demands.
A source for the island said that a number of Shiite forces, including the Construction Alliance and the Siyaron bloc supported by Muqtada al-Sadr, agreed on the necessity of resolving the nomination of a new prime minister who would receive the support of the protesters as soon as possible.
The source expected that the name of the candidate to form the next Iraqi government be announced before the Iraqi President travels to the Davos conference tomorrow, Tuesday.
This comes at a time when the head of the "Bayrak Al-Khair" bloc in the Iraqi parliament, Deputy Muhammad Al-Khalidi, revealed that President Barham Salih will assign this night the candidate for the post of prime minister.
Al-Khalidi told local media, "The candidate agreed on his qualities with the uprising masses," without revealing any further details.
"The names nominated for prime minister are Qasim al-Araji, Ali Allawi, Director of Intelligence Service Mustafa al-Kazemi and former Minister of Communications Muhammad Tawfiq Allawi, and advisor to the President of the Republic, Ali Shukri," political analyst Wathiq al-Hashemi said in a press statement. Iraqi sources say that the competition is limited to three candidates, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, Ali Al-Shukri and Muhammad Tawfiq Allawi.
The protesters escalated their protests, today, as their deadline for the authorities to respond to their demands ended.
The protesters' demands focus on assigning an independent and impartial person to form a government of non-partisan specialists, in preparation for early elections, as well as holding accountable the killers of the demonstrators and activists in the protests.
Iraq has witnessed unprecedented protests since October 25, interspersed with violence that left 504 dead and more than 17,000 wounded, most of them protesters, according to human, medical and security sources.
The protesters forced the government of Adel Abdul-Mahdi to resign, on December 1, and they insist on the departure and accountability of all political elites accused of corruption and waste of state funds, which have governed since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.
And Iraq is living a constitutional vacuum since the deadline for the President of the Republic to assign a candidate to form the next government on December 16 last, due to deep differences over the candidate.