The role of the MP is no longer clear in the minds of Iraqis, nor even in the MPs’ own conduct. While parliament suffers legislative paralysis and stands accused of failing in oversight, some members are busy patching roads, handing out food baskets, installing electricity poles, and even creating public parks.
The image of the ‘contractor MP’ or the ‘municipal MP’ is no longer an exception but has become a troubling norm, signalling a serious deviation from parliament’s constitutional role.
Article 61 of the constitution defines that role clearly: passing federal laws, overseeing the executive, ratifying treaties and senior appointments, and debating the national budget and government programmes.
Accordingly, MPs have no role in direct service provision. These tasks belong to executive institutions such as the ministry of reconstruction, government departments, local administrations, and other state bodies. MPs do not implement – they legislate and oversee.
Yet we now see MPs in video clips from popular neighbourhoods, directing paving machines, supervising electricity crews, and distributing water and blankets under the banner of ‘serving the people’ – scenes that look more like permanent election campaigns than parliamentary duty.
Filling the vacuum
Since 2003, with infrastructure in collapse and the executive weak, Iraq has become an ideal environment for overlapping powers. As the state retreated, MPs stepped in to fill the vacuum – not out of devotion to service, but to expand influence and win votes.
The deterioration of executive institutions was compounded by the suspension of provincial councils in 2019, a move aimed at calming angry protests. Their powers were transferred to governors, widening the political and administrative vacuum and encouraging MPs to act as ‘MP-governors’, particularly in the absence of genuine local oversight.
With social media spreading, appearances matter more than substance. A short video of an MP distributing water in Basra attracts more engagement than their participation in amending or passing an important law.
Thus, MPs have shifted from legislators and overseers into road-patchers, water distributors, and blanket handers. Today, a search for ‘MP road-patching’ on YouTube yields dozens of videos of MPs leading street-repair campaigns. What unites them is not only their field appearances but also their near-total absence from records of legislation, interpellations, or legal initiatives.
A legal provision
Legally, there is no explicit provision criminalising MPs who undertake service projects. But Article 47 of the constitution enshrines the separation of powers, and Article 9 of Law No. 13 of 2018 on the Council of Representatives states:
‘It is prohibited for the MP to use their influence in purchasing or renting state property or to litigate against the state over it, or to rent or sell the state anything from their own property, or to conclude a contract with the state as a supplier or contractor. It is also prohibited for them to mediate with state departments or influence them for personal purposes or for appointments therein in any capacity.’
When an MP interferes in executive departments, pressures a municipal director, or signs a contract with a contractor, they overstep their authority. In some cases, these activities are funded through ‘undeclared’ sources or supported by political parties, raising suspicions of corruption and early election financing.
Such practices threaten to hollow out parliament’s function. The more MPs become absorbed in service work, the less they legislate and oversee. The MP who distributes food baskets does not dare to question the minister of trade, and the one who arranges road-patching deals does not propose a law against administrative corruption.
They also entrench clientelism. An MP who serves one district but not another is not serving the nation but their own electoral base. Parliament thus turns from representing the people into mediating between the poor and the state.
This deviation also weakens the executive government itself. When MPs act as service departments, ministries are relieved of accountability. Citizens start asking MPs, not ministries, to fix their roads, while MPs bargain behind the scenes to finance projects from opaque budgets.
The enablers
Several factors feed this behaviour: the lack of accountability from media and civil society, the decline of political education and constitutional awareness, and above all, citizens’ widespread ignorance of MPs’ real duties.
If the ‘contractor MP’ is a deviation from the constitution, its popular acceptance is even more dangerous. It reflects political confusion and erodes trust in institutions.
But why do many Iraqis – out of conviction or despair – see road-patching or job appointments as part of an MP’s role?
One reason is the absence of political culture. Constitutional awareness in Iraq has never been built on strong educational or media foundations. Concepts such as separation of powers, parliamentary representation, and legislative oversight are absent from schools and public debates. A generation has grown up seeing MPs not as lawmakers but as political fixers.
There is also cumulative despair with parliament. Scenes of obstruction, corruption, deal-making, and legislative inertia have eroded belief that MPs can make a real difference. Receiving a direct service from an MP – even if unlawful – seems better than nothing.
A rentier and clientelist mindset also plays a role. In a fragile rentier system, the state is reduced to individuals rather than institutions. Citizens no longer see themselves as rights-holders but as seekers of ‘favours’ or ‘connections’. This distorted relationship turns MPs into ‘channels of access’ to services rather than representatives of a legislative authority.
Media and populist symbolism reinforce the trend. A video of an MP distributing blankets in winter has more immediate impact than hours of unseen parliamentary sessions. This reproduces populist MPs while sidelining legislative and oversight competence.
The absence of alternatives deepens the problem. With local councils suspended and executive governments failing to deliver, citizens have no option but to turn to MPs. This is not only a matter of poverty but also of institutional dysfunction that pushes citizens to knock on doors unrelated to their legal rights.
Stopping the chaos
To stop this deviation, a public awareness campaign is needed to clarify MPs’ duties – through schools, universities, and media – alongside legal safeguards preventing them from signing contracts or interfering in executive projects. Transparent reports should also be published on each MP’s record in legislation, interpellations, attendance, and participation.
If matters remain unchanged – or worsen – MPs will not serve the nation but entrench its chaos. Real service is not patching a road today only for it to collapse tomorrow, but legislating laws that guarantee every neighbourhood a road, every child an education, and every worker a dignified wage.
In a country rising from the rubble of wars, the people do not need MPs wielding shovels but wielding legal texts that restore the state’s dignity. Perhaps it is time to ask every MP: How many laws have you drafted? How many interpellations have you led? Not how many streets have you paved.