Sudani initiates first shakeup in local politics by suspending Diwaniya governor

Prime Minister Sudani made his first major move in provincial politics today by suspending the governor of Diwaniya province after an investigation was launched into allegations of corruption. The decision comes one month after Sudani met with all the governors and requested MPs from 13 of the 15 provinces outside of the Kurdistan Region to evaluate their respective governors. Diwaniya was one of the two provinces excluded from the evaluation, which signalled at the time that Sudani had already decided that he was going to replace Diwaniya’s governor, Zuhair al-Shalan.