Tomorrow, Parliament will vote on the budget and news of an imminent agreement with Kurdistan

POSTED ON[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] BY [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

[size=52]Tomorrow, Parliament will vote on the budget and news of an imminent agreement with Kurdistan[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad / Tamim Al-Hassan[/size]
[size=45]Today, 24 hours remain until the date of the session to pass the budget, while there are still conflicting reports about reaching a political agreement regarding the crisis with Kurdistan.[/size]
[size=45]According to the latest information, the dialogues between Baghdad and Erbil have led to the deletion of three controversial paragraphs of the budget, and the rest of the points may be resolved in the next few hours.[/size]
[size=45]However, on the other side, the statements of government officials seem to be that the vote on the budget is going towards a “majority” and not an “agreement.”[/size]
[size=45]An official in the Kurdistan Democratic Party says that the two controversial articles (Articles 13 and 14 of the budget) must be returned to their original text without modification.[/size]
[size=45]In turn, a leader in the coordination framework confirms that part of the problems that impeded the passage of the budget was the objection of the deputies of the central and southern governorates.[/size]
[size=45]In the same context, a former deputy in the Kurdistan Parliament believes that canceling one paragraph in the recent amendments to the budget will end the differences with Kurdistan.[/size]
[size=45]And the House of Representatives set tomorrow, Thursday, a date for holding a session to vote on the three-year budget, on the second date within less than two weeks.[/size]
[size=45]A statement issued by Parliament said, "Next Thursday's session (tomorrow) of the House of Representatives will include voting on the draft federal budget law for the Republic of Iraq for the fiscal years (2023,2024,2025)."[/size]
[size=45]And Muhammad al-Halbousi, Speaker of Parliament, announced last week that the voting session on the budget would be set before the Kurdistan crisis exploded.[/size]
[size=45]Surprising proposals from the "framework" team within the Finance Committee on the budget regarding Kurdistan's share caused the bill to be returned to negotiations.[/size]
[size=45]Those proposals related to the mechanism of selling and exporting the oil extracted from the region threatened to undermine the agreement signed last April between Baghdad and Erbil.[/size]
[size=45]Expectations began to determine the new session after the rare meeting last Monday, between Al-Halbousi and the leader of Asa’ib, Qais Khazali.[/size]
[size=45]A member of the amendments team within the Finance Committee, Representative Youssef Al-Kalabi, announced, on the eve of Parliament's decision to vote, that 100 signatures had been collected for the same purpose.[/size]
[size=45]And political sources talked about the pressure exerted by Nuri al-Maliki, the leader of the state of law, to determine the voting session, even if without agreement with the Kurds.[/size]
[size=45]Observers warned that bypassing Kurdistan in the vote threatens the disintegration of the ruling state administration coalition, and the strained relationship between the government and Erbil.[/size]
[size=45]The team in favor of presenting the budget to the vote also promoted that if the draft law is not submitted this week to parliament, it will be postponed until after the Eid al-Adha holiday (which ends in early July).[/size]
[size=45]However, Mustafa Al-Karaawi, a member of the Finance Committee, denied to (Al-Mada) the accuracy of these reports about postponing the budget presentation until next month.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Karawi said that according to the parliament's by-laws, "the legislative term cannot end as long as the budget is open for discussion."[/size]
[size=45]Last May, Parliament extended its legislative term until a vote on the budget, according to a statement by the House of Representatives.[/size]
[size=45]According to what is being circulated among political circles, the dialogues between Baghdad and Erbil have reached the point of canceling 3 paragraphs, including what a former deputy in the region described as a "critical point."[/size]
[size=45]Hadi al-Amiri, the leader of Badr, leads the negotiations on the side of the "frame" in exchange for Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein on behalf of Kurdistan.[/size]
[size=45]Abdul Salam Barwari, the former deputy, says that "without canceling the eighth point in Article 14 of the new proposals on the budget, there will be no progress in the agreement with Kurdistan."[/size]
[size=45]According to the leaks, the last paragraph, which requires Baghdad to cut off funding for the region within 15 days, has been canceled in the event of a dispute between the two parties over oil revenues.[/size]
[size=45]Barwari adds: “This point is totally unfair, because problems between the region and the center cannot end, extending from 2004 to 2023 in only two weeks!”[/size]
[size=45]And the former deputy in the Kurdistan Parliament considered that this point «is a justification that prompts Baghdad to prevent sending money to Kurdistan at any time».[/size]
[size=45]In the same context, the head of the Democratic Party in the Federal Parliament, Vian Sabri, says that Articles 13 and 14 of the draft law must be returned to their original texts.[/size]
[size=45]Sabri stresses in press statements that changing the two articles is against two previous decisions of the Federal Supreme Court.[/size]
[size=45]And the Federal Court had confirmed in its decision 35 of 2021 that the addition of legislative texts by the House of Representatives to the draft budget law necessitates a ruling on the unconstitutionality of those texts, and it ruled in that year “unconstitutionality and the cancellation of some paragraphs of the general budget law.”[/size]
[size=45]And in its decision No. 25 of 2012, it considered that “the House of Representatives may not make fundamental amendments to the draft budget submitted by the government.”[/size]
[size=45]In 2015, the court confirmed that the amendments to the draft budget law should not conflict with the ministerial curriculum approved by Parliament.[/size]
[size=45]Muhammad al-Sudani, the prime minister, who has not yet commented on recent developments, signed an agreement with Kurdistan called the "comprehensive solution" last April that regulates the share of the region and the mechanism for selling oil.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Sudani seemed embarrassed by the sabotage of his previous understandings, according to observers, but officials in the "framework" deny the former's rejection of the amendments that took place.[/size]
[size=45]In the first statement by a government official on setting the date for the voting session, the Sudanese advisor called for an end to what he called “courtesy” and “procrastination” regarding the crisis with Kurdistan.[/size]
[size=45]Counselor Diaa Al-Nasseri said on Twitter yesterday: "The time has come for the people's representatives to say their word inside the parliament dome, not outside it, by voting on the tripartite budget 2023-2024-2025."[/size]
[size=45]He added, "Enough with compliments and procrastination by playing on words and letters, and the region's oil must be fully exported in accordance with the law and the constitution, and let this be the first reform in 20 years in the history of budgets."[/size]
[size=45]The objections of the deputies of Basra and other southern cities had obstructed passing the budget before the emergence of the crisis with Erbil and the threat of the agreement with the region.[/size]
[size=45]And a solution to the crisis, Abdul Salam Berwari says: "The coordination framework parties must control their deputies and prevent them from tampering with agreements."[/size]
[size=45][You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]