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| An Iraqi soldier stands guard outside the tally centre in Baghdad March 10, 2010. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo) |
POLITICAL SECTARIANISM
After interim and transitional governments after the war, Iraq held its first official parliamentary election in December 2005 and began its first four-year term government led by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in May 2006. As a sign of power balance, the president, prime minister and parliament speaker are a Kurd, a Shiite and a Sunni.
With the establishment of a young political democratic system, Iraq has various factions representing interests of different groups, who dispute over a number of issues, such as the disbanding of local militia and the sharing of oil interests between central and local governments and the territorial status of Kirkuk. The disputes had once led to a serious cabinet crisis.
As long as the disputes are not resolved, it is difficult to achieve political stability and real national unity.
According to the partial results of the recent key national poll, sectarianism seem to still prevail among voters. Maliki's State of Law coalition leads in seven middle and southern provinces with the Shiites as the majority, while the secular Iraqia List led by former prime minister Ayad Allawi, leads in five middle and northern Sunni dominated provinces. Another Shiite bloc, the Iraqi National Alliance, also leads in three southern provinces.
The forming of the next government may be a difficult process given the fierce competition between major blocs. "Having many parties is a good phenomenon because Iraq is a multiethnic country with a variety of religions. It is a better thing for Iraq to be led by multi-party government because of deep ethnic problems," says Sabah al-Sheikh, a professor of politics at Baghdad University.
"But the current politicians are not used to such democratic atmosphere. They practice democracy but sometimes misuse it," he says. "They all want to have a share in the decision-making circle and do not want to make others think they are oppressed."
"Democracy will be easier in a harmonized society, so to get real progress in Iraq we need arduous efforts to push Iraqi factions to understand each other and to coexist to resolve their problems," the political analyst adds.
SLOW RECONSTRUCTION
Due to unstable security situation in the past few years and a lack of investment, Iraq's post-war reconstruction has few tangible achievements. Iraq's official data shows its unemployment rate is 28 percent, but local analysts put the rate much higher. Also, some seven million people live in poverty, accounting for nearly a quarter of the country's total population.
With the world No. 3 proven oil reserves, Iraq has more than 80 percent of government revenue from the oil sector, which is set to play a crucial role in funding the country's rebuilding. But lack of investment has made the oil sector grow slowly.
Through two auctions in June and December last year, Iraq signed ten deals of oil fields development with foreign energy giants. The Iraqi government estimates the country would get around 200 billion U.S. dollars from oil production growth over the next six years.
The nation aims to raise its oil production to 12 million barrels a day in six to seven years with these contracts, from 2.5 million barrels a day currently.
Ali al-Rawi, a professor of economics at Baghdad University, said "Without oil revenues, Iraq will be in real trouble."
But if there is no enough security and a suitable environment for foreign investment, large-scale development of oil fields will be difficult, according to the professor.
To improve the security situation is a prerequisite for greater progress in reconstruction in Iraq, analysts say.
