Baghdad- The Iraqi Parliament approved on Monday the appointment of new defense and interior ministers. At the same session, the legislative body voted down two candidates for the ministries of commerce and industry.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi tweeted, “We are glad the parliament has voted for the new two ministers. This is a great progress in such a critical phase.” Iraqi Prime Minister aims at forming a technocrat government to replace the government of political blocs, hence to implement reforms adopted in 2015 to combat corruption, especially following the several protests that took place.

The parliament rejected on Monday to vote for two other candidates: Irfan al-Hayali and Ali Yusuf al-Asadi.

Furthermore, in July 2016, Abadi approved the resignation of seven Shi’ite ministers at his government: ministers of oil, transport, housing and construction, water resources and industry, as well as interior.

Abadi proposed in the beginning of August 2016 five candidate names to the parliament to fill in the ministerial portfolios of: oil, high education, water resources, transport and industry. After negotiations, the parliament decided in the mid of the month to vote unanimously in favor of the new amendment.

On 25 August, the parliament dismissed Minister of Defense Khaled al-Obaidi one month over corruption charges. On 21 September, the parliament voted over dismissing Minister of Finance Hoshyar Zebari. Yet, both ministries said that there are political motives behind dismissing them.