The position of Speaker of Parliament turns into a negotiating card after the provincial elections

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[size=52]The position of Speaker of Parliament turns into a negotiating card after the provincial elections[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad/ Tamim Al-Hassan[/size]
[size=45]With cautious steps, the coordination framework is dealing with the file of the Speaker of Parliament until it finishes the upcoming local elections.[/size]
[size=45]It is expected that this file will gain double value after the elections, and it may turn into one of the settlement papers that will appear at the time of forming local governments.[/size]
[size=45]Until now, it is not known specifically when a decision will be made on choosing an alternative to the sacked Speaker of Parliament, Muhammad al-Halbousi, while the official story says, “until the Sunnis agree.”[/size]
[size=45]There are 4 candidates for the position, three of whom are affiliated with Al-Halbousi, and the other is oscillating between the former’s allies and opponents of the former Speaker of Parliament.[/size]
[size=45]The Federal Court decided about two weeks ago to terminate Al-Halbousi’s membership in Parliament due to a “forgery” case.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Halbousi considered the decision “political,” and his party, “Taqaddum,” threatened to resort to international courts before they apparently imposed a settlement to calm the situation.[/size]
[size=45]On the other hand, efforts to choose an alternative to the Speaker of Parliament faltered in a session in Parliament that was dedicated to this matter last week.[/size]
[size=45]A politician close to the “Frame” says that the course of events in the case of choosing an alternative to Al-Halbousi “makes it clear that the issue will be postponed until after the local elections,” which will be held in about 20 days. Regarding choosing this specific date, the politician who spoke to Al-Mada and requested that his name not be published indicates that everyone will be busy with the elections, “and this position may turn into a trump card.” He explains: “After the elections, there will be alliances and settlements to choose the governor and important positions in the governorates, and all of this requires negotiating papers and pressure, and there is nothing stronger than the paper of the Speaker of Parliament.”[/size]
[size=45]Recently, the Shiite framework began trying to hold all the strings of the game, including choosing an alternative to the sacked Speaker of Parliament, Muhammad al-Halbousi, due to the position of the Sadrists.[/size]
[size=45]The Shiite alliance fears what it calls a “component imbalance” in which Shiite votes in mixed areas, such as Baghdad and Diyala, go to the Sunnis.[/size]
[size=45]This fear came after the position of Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the Sadrist movement, who decided to boycott the elections. On this basis, the Shiite politician believes that the organizing framework “wants to guarantee relations with Sunni parties in order to then use them in forming the local government.” These guarantees translate into obstructing the selection of a candidate for the presidency of Parliament affiliated with Al-Halbousi, in exchange for an attempt to pass another candidate. According to what is leaked, the “Frame” and Al-Halbousi’s opponents, which are the Sunni forces allied with the Shiites (such as the Hasm and Azm alliances), reject 4 candidates affiliated with the Taqaddam Party, most notably Shaalan Al-Karim and Ziad Al-Janabi.[/size]
[size=45]In return, they are trying to push Salem Al-Issawi to the position, who is a representative affiliated with the Sovereignty Alliance, a partner of Al-Halbousi, but he is also close to the latter’s opponents. This confusion prompted the postponement of the election of the Speaker of Parliament in the last session of the House of Representatives, which was held amid objections about its legality. At that session, the “Framework” had guaranteed that the mandate of the Election Commission would be extended until after the results of the local and Kurdistan elections emerged. This sparked criticism from representatives such as the head of the Al-Faw-Zakho movement, MP Amer Abdel-Jabbar, who considered the session illegal because it was dedicated to “choosing an alternative to Al-Halbousi and not passing laws.”[/size]
[size=45]According to the official version, it was the Sunnis who requested that the item “electing the Speaker of Parliament” be removed from the agenda of the last session, according to what a member of the Legal Committee, Arif Al-Hamami, said.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Hamami added to Al-Mada that “Parliament is waiting for the Sunnis to agree on a new candidate, otherwise there will be no session.” The representative added, “When an agreement is reached on the name of a candidate, 50 representatives will request that an extraordinary session be held to elect a replacement for Al-Halbousi.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Hamami, a representative of the State of Law, stated, “The candidate will be put to a vote, but before that there will be an agreement on the name between the political forces, and the matter will be presented to the coordination framework.” According to leaks that reached Al-Mada, the Shiites requested that any Sunni candidate obtain at least 60 votes, which actually happened a week ago, but was disrupted at the last minute.[/size]
[size=45]Last week, about 62 Sunni representatives decided to authorize Al-Halbousi and Al-Khanjar to choose the Speaker of Parliament, but the agreement was not completed due to interventions from Shiites and opponents of the former Speaker of Parliament.[/size]
[size=45]The session faltered due to the candidate Salem Al-Issawi, who was rejected by Al-Halbousi and supported by the rest of the parties, and the Shiites decided to stand with their allies.[/size]
[size=45]Following the failure of choosing the new Speaker of Parliament, Shiite parties launched an attack on Al-Halbousi, and he was accused of taking the Shiite votes after boycotting Al-Sadr, while granting the position of Speaker of Parliament to the Sunnis was described as a “Shiite courtesy.” It also does not seem that the Shiite forces have forgotten Al-Halbousi’s previous alignment with Al-Sadr during the days of the Triple Alliance.[/size]
[size=45]Recently, Qais Khazali, the leader of Asaib, considered that Al-Halbousi, who is now talking about “political custom” - referring to the position of Speaker of Parliament as a Sunni position - was the first to not adhere to it after the 2021 elections.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Khazali said in a television interview, “The Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Taqaddum Party did not respect the Shiite majority after the last elections.”[/size]
[size=45]In turn, Atheel Al-Nujaifi, a leader in the Salvation and Development Front, said that he was not surprised by “some Shiites boasting that the position of Speaker of Parliament is a blessing from them over the Sunnis” due to the absence of “respected political leaders.”[/size]
[size=45]He added in an interview with (Al-Mada): “Very frankly, since 2018, Mr. Osama Al-Nujaifi (the former Speaker of Parliament) refused to assume this position when he was presented with an ambush from Shiite parties, and he preferred to preserve his name and reputation instead of accepting this favor and submitting to its entitlements.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Nujaifi, a former governor of Nineveh, considered that since 2018 the Sunni political situation has receded to “a minority that fears accusations of ISIS (in reference to ISIS) and wants to satisfy the Shiite majority and respond to all its conditions.”[/size]
[size=45]He continued, "The Shiite side has also lost the authority of the rational people who realize the dangers of this Sunni situation, and the authority of the impulsive Shiites who do not consider long-term calculations has strengthened in the absence of respected Sunni leaders in the Sunni community."[/size]
[size=45]Al-Nujaifi and Al-Halbousi (the sacked Speaker of Parliament) are considered one of the fruits of “the Sunni surrender to the Shiite decision, as the latter exploited his influence among the Shiites to attack all Sunni leaders and leadership that affected his personal situation, and thus he fell victim to what he sowed.” Al-Nujaifi says that despite this, he is not despairing that “the situation that the Sunnis went through as a result of the defeat in the ISIS phase and what followed it has passed, and they have now begun to restore their personality gradually and with slow steps.” He added, "These political conflicts that are occurring between them are the beginning of the new birth of a new Sunni situation. I imagine its first features will appear in the local elections and its situation will be completed in the next parliamentary elections."[/size]
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