Iraqi PM appoints five cabinet ministers who applied online

The prime minister of Iraq has reportedly selected five of his cabinet ministers from people who applied for the positions online.

Adel Abdul-Mahdi and two-thirds of his cabinet were sworn in on 25 October following the country’s turbulent parliamentary elections in May, and last month took the unprecedented step of “inviting members of the public to apply for [the remaining] posts online”, the BBC says.

The site adds that prospective candidates were asked to attach a CV and “provide evidence that they met the requirements”.

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According to Kurdish news agency Rudaw, the Abdul-Mahdi government recieved more than 15,000 applications, which created a database “to be made use of in picking experts, volunteers, and specialists based on need”.

The move is thought to be a tactic to circumvent allegations of corruption, the site adds. “Governments in Iraq post-Saddam Hussein have been criticised for corruption and patronage based on party allegiances,” it says, and the new system allows for greater transparency.

However, the new PM came under fire for what some fellow politicians called an “unacceptable” approach to government recruitment, Arab News reported.

“This is a mockery of the position of minister. There is no government in the world that respects itself and is formed in this way,” a prominent Shiite leader who served as a minister told the site.

“This is just a silly trick or a joke. Instead of wasting his time in these games, he has to invest every minute of the remaining 20 days to choose his ministers.”

“We do not know the idiot who suggested this, but it is certain that Abdul Mahdi knows for sure that the nominations for the ministry are not done in this way,” another added.

Arab News also says that the decision has left Abdul-Mahdi “flooded with applications from jobless Iraqis” and made him “the butt of social media jokes [and] criticism from the government’s opponents”.