Large parties summoned the "absent class" to pass "St. Lego" and a deputy came in a wheelchair

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[size=52]Large parties summoned the "absent class" to pass "St. Lego" and a deputy came in a wheelchair[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad / Tamim Al-Hassan[/size]
[size=45]Independent deputies, Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi, vowed to submit new appeals against the backdrop of what happened in Sunday's session, which witnessed the vote on the election law.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Halbousi, in a rare case, used the Parliament's protection forces to expel more than 30 deputies who objected to the law that adopted the "Saint-Lego" system for counting the votes of the winners of the elections.[/size]
[size=45]During the session, which lasted until dawn, the supporters' front, which includes the major parties, urgently summoned what became known as the "absent group" of deputies.[/size]
[size=45]Representatives reported that they saw parliamentarians attending for the first time since the beginning of the current session, and that some of them came in a wheelchair.[/size]
[size=45]The parliament had adjourned its session at dawn yesterday, Monday, after voting on an election law that dates back to before the October demonstrations in 2019.[/size]
[size=45]This law sparked a wave of street anger, and independent deputies formed, during the past weeks, a pressure ring to prevent the passage of the amendment that was proposed by the coordination framework.[/size]
[size=45]During the last session, video clips showed Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi surrounded by soldiers who were supposed to be outside the parliament hall.[/size]
[size=45]In those clips, the Speaker of Parliament was waving heavily with the hammer he used to set the pace of the session, while the protection forces began expelling a group of deputies.[/size]
[size=45]These deputies had chanted and banged on the tables inside the hall against the election law, and one of them used the whistle.[/size]
[size=45]One of the independent deputies who was expelled, Basem Al-Gharabi, spoke to (Al-Mada) about the scenes of what happened that night.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Gharabi says, "The opposition front (rejecting the law) had escalated and reached more than 80 deputies, but not all of the opposition appeared on the scene."[/size]
[size=45]The independent deputy pointed out that some of the opponents preferred to stay behind, while others, including Al-Gharabi, started shouting at the council speaker against "St. Lego".[/size]
[size=45]And the influential forces (supporting the passage of the law) faced more than once a problem in securing a sufficient quorum to hold a parliamentary session, so how if the quorum happened this time?[/size]
[size=45]Al-Gharabi says: "The influential parties began to threaten and put pressure on the deputies. The leaders of the blocs contacted their deputies and asked them to attend and return the favor for obtaining a seat in Parliament."[/size]
[size=45]And the deputy adds: «On that night, we saw deputies for the first time witnessing them since the beginning of the current session a year and 4 months ago, and we thought at the beginning that they were employees of Parliament».[/size]
[size=45]And Al-Gharabi said, "These deputies are from the group that is permanently absent from the sessions, as they were summoned, and we saw a deputy in a wheelchair, and this was the first time he attended the parliament."[/size]
[size=45]Independent deputies estimated the presence of between 100 and 120 deputies, describing them as “aliens.” They are frequently absent, and most of them live outside Iraq.[/size]
[size=45]This is the second time that the influential forces use the method of quickly summoning absent deputies to achieve a quorum. This happened in last week's session (before the Nowruz holiday) in which Parliament passed part of the law.[/size]
[size=45]At that time, independent deputies told (Al-Mada) that they saw female deputies wearing inverted abayas, and male deputies wearing inappropriate attire because they were awakened from sleep and brought to the session, which then continued until dawn.[/size]
[size=45]From fighting the system to fighting the independents![/size]
[size=45]After achieving a quorum, the opposition front tried to prevent the law from being passed, and some independents who asked to reduce "Saint-Lego" from 1.7 to 1.5 have continued to refuse, which has increased the size of the front.[/size]
[size=45]On the contrary, other independents have lined up with the big parties, the most prominent of them, according to Representative Al-Gharabi: "The two representatives are Hussein Arab and Hassan Al-Khafaji."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Gharabi added, "These people from the beginning had wavering positions, and they are not with us. They had understandings with the large blocs."[/size]
[size=45]The session began, and the protesters’ chants against the election law escalated. Al-Halbousi decided to invoke the parliament’s protection in a rare case that only happened once 7 years ago, but in a lighter form.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Gharabi adds, speaking about what happened: “Shakhwan Abdullah, the second deputy of Al-Halbousi, prevented any of the protection from touching the deputies, and we, in return, continued to cheer.”[/size]
[size=45]After that, the Speaker of Parliament seemed to lose his temper - according to video clips - and began to hit hard with a hammer on the table, raising his voice.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Gharabi says: "We were between 30 and 40 deputies shouting against the law when Al-Halbousi decided, at the request of the head of the Security and Defense Committee, Abbas Al-Zamili, to expel us from the hall."[/size]
[size=45]The independent MP is surprised: “How can Al-Zamili, who is the head of the Badr Organization bloc (led by Hadi Al-Amiri) in parliament, accept to use repressive methods when his party is proud of fighting Saddam’s regime?![/size]
[size=45]Al-Gharabi confirmed that the Parliament Speaker had referred to Al-Zamili to issue an order to expel the objectors from the session, and the deputies voted on him.[/size]
[size=45]After that, the protection forces began to push the expelled deputies out of the hall, according to what Al-Gharabi said, while pictures appeared of MP Muhammad Nuri, who is an independent deputy, and he was wounded in the head, while Al-Gharabi denied that he had witnessed the use of violence against any deputy.[/size]
[size=45]After the approval of the election law and the adjournment of the session, Al-Gharabi confirmed that: "There are a number of lawsuits and appeals that will be filed against Al-Halbousi and the session."[/size]
[size=45]The independent deputies had expected the Federal Court to issue its decision during the current or next week on previous appeals submitted in the session that took place before the Nowruz holiday.[/size]
[size=45]recent modifications[/size]
[size=45]The most prominent thing that Parliament voted on regarding the articles of amendments to the new law is to oblige “the Council of Ministers, in coordination with the Commission, to set a date for elections for the provincial councils this year, provided that it does not exceed the date of 12/20/2023.”[/size]
[size=45]And that "the candidate for the elections be a full-fledged Iraqi who has completed thirty years of age on polling day, and has a bachelor's degree or its equivalent, with the exception of the quota for the components, the preparatory certificate and higher."[/size]
[size=45]He also voted that: “The correct votes for each list are divided according to the serial numbers (1, 7, 3, 5, 7, 9 …..etc) and the number of seats in the constituency. The highest outcome is chosen until all seats in the constituency are exhausted.”[/size]
[size=45]The new amendments stipulated that in the event: “If a member of the House of Representatives or a member of the Provincial Council loses his seat for any reason whatsoever, he shall be replaced by the candidate next to him in terms of the number of votes obtained on his list.”[/size]
[size=45]Either: “If a member of the House of Representatives or a member of the Provincial Council lost his seat for any reason and was on a single list, the seat shall be allocated to another candidate who obtained the highest number of votes for a party or political organization that obtained the maximum number of votes but did not obtain a seat.”[/size]
[size=45]These amendments were reached by the political forces after a short series of understandings that lasted only hours, following the postponement of last Sunday's dawn session until the evening of the same day.[/size]
[size=45]Thaer Makhaif, the representative of the State of Law, said in an interview with (Al-Mada) that in that short tour, “the blocs agreed on the status of Kirkuk, and women agreed to the quota stipulated in the constitution.” These are the most prominent differences that hindered the passage of the law in the last 24 hours.[/size]
[size=45]And Mukhaif indicated that the measures to expel the deputies, which al-Halbousi took, "came after he warned the objectors that they were violating the internal system of Parliament, but they did not listen to him."[/size]
[size=45]The representative of the coordination framework indicated that the decision was legally drafted “by issuing a statement from the head of the Security Committee, and the deputies voted on it.[/size]
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