- Title: Iraqis hold nationwide protests amid constitutional deadlock
- Date: 23rd December 2019
- Summary: VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS WRITING DOWN CARDS OF MEMORIES PROTESTER HANGING CARD OF MEMORY ON WALL AT TAHRIR SQUARE
- Embargoed: 6th January 2020 09:49
- Keywords: Iraq Iraq potests anti-government protests baghdad constitutional vacuum
- Location: BAGHDAD / NAJAF / KERBALA / NASIRIYA, IRAQ
- City: BAGHDAD / NAJAF / KERBALA / NASIRIYA, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA002BB74407
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Iraq's parliament is due to reconvene on Monday (December 23) to pass a new electoral law as political deadlock continues to prevent the naming of a new prime minister.
Anti-government protests raged across the country on Monday, as demonstrators refuse to accept a prime minister nominated by the ruling political parties.
More than 450 people, mostly unarmed demonstrators, but also some members of the security forces, have been killed since a wave of popular unrest began on October 1.
Protesters, most of them young, are demanding an overhaul of a political system they see as profoundly corrupt and keeping many Iraqis in poverty.
Parliament failed in December to pass a new electoral law, a key demand of protesters. The new law aims to reduce the number of lawmakers in parliament and bring the minimum age of candidacy down by five years, from 30 to 25.
Deadlock in parliament also held up the selection of an interim prime minister, causing lawmakers to miss the constitutional deadline on Thursday (December 19) to name a replacement for Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, who resigned last month but has remained in office in a caretaker capacity.
(Production: Maher Nazeh, Ahmed Saeed, Stringer, Mohammed Katfan) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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