Iraqs premier-designate Mohammad Allawi announced Saturday he would submit his cabinet to a parliamentary vote within days, promising it would be stacked with "independents.” The countrys capital and Shiite-majority south have been rocked by demonstrations since October demanding an end to corruption and a total overhaul of the ruling class. Allawi, a two-time communications minister, has until March 2 to propose ministers to parliament, which must grant them a vote of confidence. Iraqi officials have quietly expressed skepticism he would be able to complete it in time but Allawi surprisingly announced he would submit the lineup early. "Were nearing a historic achievement: completing an independent cabinet of competent and impartial people, without the intervention of any political party," Allawi said on Twitter. He pledged to "submit the names of these ministers within the current week", which begins on Sunday in Iraq. "We hope members of the parliament will respond and vote on them in order to start implementing the peoples demands." Parliament is due to be in recess until mid-March and the speaker, Mohammed Halbusi, has not scheduled an extraordinary session. Allawi was nominated on February 1 as a consensus candidate among Iraqs fractured political parties but has only been publicly endorsed by populist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. The cleric first backed the rallies but split with the main protest movement after endorsing Allawi, whom demonstrators consider too close to the political elite that has governed Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion. Since then, cabinets have been formed through sectarian power-sharing, which lends itself to widespread horsetrading among various sects and parties. The countrys Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish factions are likely to hold on tight to their shares of the current cabinet and hope to carry them over into the next cabinet.