There is also a larger issue here, especially when it comes to the country's security. It is generally thought that a lot of the army and police commanders respect al-Maliki. As yet they do not feel this way about the new Prime Minister, al-Abadi.
And al-Maliki has been quick to criticise al-Abadi's security related decisions. Al-Maliki visited his hometown in Karbala last week and made harsh comments about the shelling of heavily populated areas under the control of Sunni Muslim extremists – innocent civilians were being killed, he said. He was also critical of al-Abadi's stated aim of forming separate armed forces in different parts of Iraq.
Although it is hard to know what caused this – the Iraqi army's own inefficiency could be the cause – the army continued to shell populated areas for hours after al-Abadi commanded them to stop. Questions have been raised as to whether Iraqi army officers will abide by their new Commander-in-Chief's orders.
Correcting these “mistakes” made by al-Maliki will be a difficult task. In order to make it easier, current MPs from every part of the government want to draft legislation that defines how the executive branch and cabinet works.
“The new Prime Minister has vowed to draft bylaws for his department in order to end that department's monopoly on decision making,” MP Amir al-Kanani, a leading member of the Shiite Muslim Sadrist movement, told NIQASH.
During the last two governments, both led by al-Maliki, there was no such law. Cabinet ministers didn't know where their powers began or ended and they would often seek permission from al-Maliki before making any decisions. The lack of such a law also meant that it wasn't clear when the government became illegitimate.
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