Iraq’s parliament confirmed Adel Abd al-Mahdi as the country’s new prime minister late on 24 October along with a number of key ministers, but not all the cabinet positions have been filled, according to local media reports.

Abd al-Mahdi, a former Iraq oil minister still has until 2 November to build his government, but has now filled some of the most important offices. The key defence and interior ministry positions are yet to be filled, however, and these could pose significant obstacles.

Parliament has struggled to form a new government since national elections on 12 May, against a backdrop of unrest over corruption and the poor state of the country’s infrastructure.

Fuad Hussein, who had previously been chief of staff for Kurdistan Regional Government’s president Massour Barzani, was appointed as finance minister and deputy prime minister for economic affairs.

Thamir Ghadban, a widely respected technocrat replaces Jabbar al-Luaibi as oil minister. Ghadban has held the post before as oil minister from 2004 to 2005. He then chaired the prime minister’s advisory committee under Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his successor Haider al-Abadi. As well as returning to his old office, he will also serve as deputy prime minister for energy.

Al-Luaibi himself had already been named as the president of the newly formed Iraq National Oil Company, a ministerial role.

The Electricity Ministry will now be led by Luay al-Khatteeb, the founder of London-based think-tank, the Iraq Energy Institute. Having spent more than two decades at UK-Dutch oil major Shell and Sharjah-based Crescent Petroleum, Khateeb served as a key adviser on energy reform to the Iraq parliament.