Posted by permit of SaraMiller at another board:

six ministers will officially resign Monday
This Was Being Announced:

The six ministers will officially resign Monday, said Saleh al-Aujaili and Hassan al-Rubaie, both members of al-Sadr's bloc in parliament. They said al-Sadr's 30 legislators would remain in parliament.

Losing the six Sadrist ministers would further sap al-Maliki's already weak government, possibly causing it to collapse. The threat comes two months into a U.S. military campaign intended to pacify Baghdad and bolster the government. Leaders of al-Sadr's militia have been arrested in the crackdown.

Two officials in al-Sadr's organization said the cleric had ordered his supporters on al-Maliki's Cabinet to withdraw as a protest over arrests of leaders in his Shiite militia and the prime minister's failure to back a timetable for U.S. withdrawal.

National Iraqi News Agency


While the PM was saying:

Asked about the government's structure and performance, Al-Maliki says that there is harmony within the Cabinet, and the members of the Cabinet are eager to maintain the unity of the government and the Cabinet, that they are "shouldering their responsibilities," noting that the government is not influenced by "the quota system."

He says the government is facing immense challenges and the public services require time, arguing that the power generating stations and oil refineries need three or four years to build and noting that the Iraqi people perhaps do not know that, "but it is their right to demand services."

Iraqi PM views security conditions, militias, US attitude, Iran | Iraq Updates


PARLIAMENT SUSPENDED:

With six Sadrist Bloc Cabinet Ministers to announce their resignations tomorrow and the growing rumours of Al-Maliki To Be Replaced By Anti-Sadrist Bloc (http://www.iraqslogger.com/index.php...rawal_From_Gov or Al-Maliki To Be Replaced By Anti-Sadrist Bloc?)

maybe the holiday is in fact to prevent the Cabinet Ministers' resignations forcing the call for a non-confidence vote on the PM and forcing a new election - where Moqtada al-Sadr could actually win the PM Posting (his militia is powerfull enought to prevent many of the other candidates from even running)..

Scarry!

As then we would have to stage a military take over or us having to declare this exercise in freedom cancelled and declare Iraq to be our commonwealth...

SO MAYBE, this holiday is really more complicated than we thought?????