Animadversion of Parliamentarianism

Omar Sindi | Exclusive to iKurd.net

One chief criticism and advantage of many Parliamentary processes is that the head of government is, in nearly all cases, not directly elected.

In a Presidential election process, the President is, under normal circumstances, selected by the electorate, or a group of electors directly chosen by the people, separate from the legislature.

Nevertheless, in a Parliamentary process, the Prime Minister is selected by the legislature, frequently under the leadership of a charismatic political party. For instance, look at the Iraqi parliamentary election: The 2010 election ended with several weeks of waiting for the announcement of the results by the Iraqi Election Commission.

The results of the elections finally came on March 6, 2010, when Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc was declared the biggest winner of the Parliamentary election with two seats more than the contender, Nouri al-Maliki’s party in the Assembly. However, Maliki was still able to maneuver to gain the trust of smaller political parties to add to his bloc, for the majority of seats.

He made empty promises to the Kurdish political parties, particularly agreeing to implement Article 140 (e.g., former Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani, now Deputy Prime Minister for Energy, who is notorious for his outspoken stance on oil deals in Kurdistan). Maliki knows that oil contracts are part of Article 140 but still allows Mr. Shahristani such imprudent behavior.

In the United States elections, the nominees for party leadership are mostly decided by party members or party loyalists. However, when it comes to the final election, everyone in the United States has the right to participate. The swing voters decide who wins the election by direct vote for President of the United States, whether they belong to a particular party or not.

Another principal criticism of the Parliamentary process is the direct process of its claimed benefit: there is no truly independent body to oppose or veto legislation passed by Parliament, and therefore no essential checks and balances on legislative power.

On the contrary, because of the lack of intrinsic detachment of powers, many people think that the Parliamentary process gives extra power to the executive branch, leading to the concern that the legislature or judiciary have little power to oversee or check the executive.

In a Presidential election process, the President is mostly chosen indirectly by the legislature. If the President and legislature in such a system include members from predominantly different political parties, then deadlock can occur. Consequently, the executive within a Presidential system might not be able to suitably fulfill his or her platform.

Omar Sindi, a senior writer, analyst and columnist for iKurd.net, Washington, United States.

The opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of iKurd.net or its editors.