Following up on protests from late February where thousands protested against the current government in a nod to the trend seen throughout the Arab world, hundreds of Iraqi’s protested recently against the Al-Maliki government.
Many of the protesters had red-painted index fingers, a reference to the ink used in order to show that a person had voted in the election. It took the current government 9 months to form a coalition and yet several key cabinet positions, including the Ministries of defense, interior, and planning, remain unfilled.
Many of the protestors decried the lack of basic public services in Iraq nearly 7 years after the removal of Saddam Hussein from power. Issues such as the proliferation of corruption in the public sector and lack of employment opportunities are among the issues that repeatedly come up from the protestors.
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