Coalition-Building in Iraq: Mission Impossible?

More than four months after it was elected on 15 December 2005, the Iraqi Council of Representatives (Parliament) was finally able to nominate a new prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, along with a State President, Jalal al-Talabani (the incumbent), and a new Speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani. The long delay was ostensibly due to the crisis surrounding Ibrahim al-Ja’fari, the interim Prime Minister, who was initially nominated by the Shi’ite coalition (in February 2006) as its candidate for the post but was unable to put together a governing coalition. However, the crisis surrounding Ja’fari’s candidacy was really only the tip of a deep, structural problem afflicting Iraqi polity and society since the formation of the modern state.