Iraq's deputy PM against third term for Maliki

Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Salih al-Mutlak said on Thursday that he opposes a third four-year term for current Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, expressing his uncertainty for fair parliamentary elections next Wednesday. "I do not agree that the prime minister, Mr. al-Maliki, will take a third term in office. I do not agree that any politician will take a third term (of prime minister)," Mutlak said. In August last year the country's Federal Court rejected a law passed earlier that would have prevented al-Maliki from seeking a third term in office after the coming parliamentary elections. Mutlak said he was skeptical about having a fair general polls because of the wide-spread corruption in the government as well as the chaos and deterioration of the security situation. "Those who are more corrupted are more affected in this election, and this will lead that corrupted people are going to be in the front," he said, predicting that such results of elections will worsen the corruption more and more in the future. "There will no public services if the security is not going to be improved, and there will be no effective service to be delivered to the people if the corruption is going to exist as it is now," Mutlak added. As for the elections in the volatile province of Anbar, Mutlak, a Sunni secular, said that the prolonged battles against Sunni tribal fighters and some militants groups could become a conspiracy against the Sunni community to prevent them from competing in the general elections. Mutlak's comments came just six days ahead of Iraq's parliamentary elections, the first in the country since the U.S. troops withdrew in late 2011.