Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced the removal of 11 cabinet posts Sunday in the first concrete step of a reform drive aimed at curbing corruption and streamlining the government.
Abadi scrapped three deputy premier positions and four ministries, and merged four more ministries with others, a statement from his office said, reducing the size of the cabinet by a third. He removed the human rights ministry, the ministry of state for women's affairs, the ministry of state for provincial and parliamentary affairs, and a third ministry of state.
And he merged the science and technology ministry with higher education, environment with health, municipalities with reconstruction and housing, and tourism and antiquities with culture. Abadi rolled out a reform plan on August 9 in response to weeks of protests and a call from the country's top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and parliament approved the programme along with additional measures two days later.
Sistani, who is revered by millions of Shias, then called for judicial reform on Friday, and Abadi echoed that call later in the day. One of the most drastic of Abadi's proposals was the elimination of the vice president and deputy premier posts.
While Abadi may be able to do away with the deputy premiers, the constitution would need to be amended to fully eliminate the post of vice president - something unlikely to happen at this time.
Amid a major heatwave that has seen temperatures top 50 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit), protesters have railed against the poor quality of services, especially power outages that leave just a few hours of government-supplied electricity per day.
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