BAGHDAD, Oct 12 (NNN-NINA) – The Iraqi parliament decided to hold a session tomorrow, dedicated to electing the next president of the country.
Yesterday, Iraqi parliament Speaker, Mohammed al-Halbousi, announced the decision in a press release, after a regular parliament session, noting that, the agenda for tomorrow’s session would only include the election of the Iraqi president.
According to the power-sharing system in Iraq, after 2003, the presidency should be reserved for the Kurds, the speaker’s post for the Sunnis, and the prime minister’s post for the Shiites.
So far, disagreement persists between the two major Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, over the position of the president.
On Monday, Muhsen al-Mandalawi, first deputy of the parliament speaker, said in a statement that, some 170 lawmakers submitted a request to hold a session today, dedicated to electing the next president of the country, in an attempt to end the political deadlock, a year after the Oct 10 elections last year.
Political tensions in Iraq have escalated in the past months between the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and Sadrist Movement, the biggest winner in the Oct parliamentary elections in 2021, and his rivals in the Shiite parliamentary parties in the Coordination Framework (CF), an umbrella group of Shiite parliamentary parties.
Al-Sadr demanded in the past weeks to dissolve parliament and hold early elections, but his demands were rejected by the CF parties, which became the largest bloc after al-Sadr ordered his followers to withdraw from parliament in June.
Over the past months, persistent disputes between the Shiite parties have hampered the formation of a new government, which requires a two-thirds majority of the 329-seat parliament, under the Iraqi constitution.
