Parliament resorts to chaos tactics to prevent an alternative to Al-Halbousi

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[size=52]Parliament resorts to chaos tactics to prevent an alternative to Al-Halbousi[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad/ Tamim Al-Hassan[/size]
[size=45]For the second time, the coordination framework appears to have resorted to the tactic of “artificial chaos” within Parliament after the collapse of political understandings. The “Framework”, according to some estimates, was forced to adjourn the Saturday session that was devoted to choosing the Speaker of Parliament, after a division within the Shiite alliance.[/size]
[size=45]For unknown reasons, an amendment to an “unimportant” law - as described by members of the Legal Committee - was inserted into the session, causing chaos to spread inside the hall. These differences prompted the return of discussing the replacement of Muhammad al-Halbousi (the dismissed Speaker of Parliament) to the negotiating table again after two months of postponement.[/size]
[size=45]It is expected that the coming hours will witness the announcement of the withdrawal of candidates for the position, while there is controversy over the possibility of all five contenders returning to the second round, even the losers. Yesterday at dawn, Parliament announced the adjournment of a session that lasted for more than 6 hours, to elect a new president, for an indefinite period.[/size]
[size=45]This came after a quarrel between the representatives and the acting Speaker of the Council, Mohsen Al-Mandalawi, a leader in the Shiite framework, according to what was reported in video clips from inside the meeting hall.[/size]
[size=45]Representatives from the “Frame” appeared in those clips, demanding that Al-Mandalawi “adjourn the session,” to prevent the development of events after the disruption of the second round to elect Al-Halbousi’s replacement.[/size]
[size=45]The second round to elect the Speaker of the House of Representatives was held, after a delay that extended for several hours after the end of the first round the day before yesterday, Saturday.[/size]
[size=45]The atmosphere before the session suggested a “framework” agreement on Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, the former speaker of parliament, who is supported by Nouri al-Maliki, the leader of the state of law.[/size]
[size=45]But the surprise showed that 152 representatives voted in favor of Shaalan al-Karim, Al-Halbousi’s candidate, who was subjected to an organized media campaign hours before the session that accused him of “Baathism” and “ISIS.”[/size]
[size=45]Old video clips of “Shalan Al-Karim” praising the former regime were circulated, while Al-Mashhadani received only 48 votes.[/size]
[size=45]According to informed sources, a “coup took place” within the session by the Shiite framework, due to a previous agreement with Al-Halbousi that the position would remain in the share of the largest Sunni bloc.[/size]
[size=45]Hours before Saturday's session, the Secretary-General of the Coordination Framework, Abbas Al-Amiri, denied that the framework had received the name of the parliamentary presidential candidate, Shaalan Al-Karim.[/size]
[size=45]Local media had quoted Al-Amiri as a “brief statement” in which he announced Shaalan Al-Karim’s appointment as a candidate for the presidency of Parliament.[/size]
[size=45]Shaalan Al-Karim's party (Taqadum) has 44 seats in Parliament, while only representatives of Al-Maliki and Asaib Ahl Al-Haq, led by Qais Khazali, voted for Al-Mashhadani.[/size]
[size=45]The first round of voting ended late on Saturday evening, and Shalan Al-Karim was succeeded by MP Salem Al-Issawi, the Sovereignty Alliance candidate (Khamis Al-Khanjar), with 97 votes.[/size]
[size=45]While MP Amer Abdul-Jabbar received 6 votes and came fourth after Al-Mashhadani, and MP Talal Al-Zubaie received one vote.[/size]
[size=45]After the start of the second round, everyone was surprised when representatives submitted a request to amend the House of Representatives law and transform the presidency from a “president and two deputies” to a “presidency,” so the quarrel began within the session.[/size]
[size=45]Regarding amending the law, Muhammad Anouz, a member of the Parliament’s Legal Committee, told Al-Mada: “It seems that there is an intention to provoke some representatives and create chaos by adding an unimportant amendment at a sensitive time.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Anouz confirms that according to the Constitution, Article 13, there is no designation for a “presidency” in Parliament similar to the Presidency of the Republic, and “this issue could have been postponed to any other time.”[/size]
[size=45]It is expected, according to the sources, that parties from the “Framework” have raised the issue of adding an item to the agenda to cause chaos and adjourn the session until new understandings are reached.[/size]
[size=45]The Shiite Alliance had implemented this “tactic” for the first time in the first session after the 2021 elections, which was headed by (the eldest) Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani.[/size]
[size=45]Al-Mashhadani admitted in a televised interview after that, that he agreed with one of the Shiite representatives to show himself having been beaten to prevent a session in which the Sadrist movement intended to declare itself the largest bloc.[/size]
[size=45]In the same context, Rahim Al-Aboudi, a member of the Al-Hikma Movement, told Al-Mada: “The coordination framework agreed that the position of Speaker of Parliament is a Sunni entitlement, but the personal and partisan opinions of political activists and other forces sparked chaos and led to the adjournment of the session.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Aboudi attributes the occurrence of disagreements within the Shiite alliance to “the Sunnis not agreeing on a single candidate. Consequently, some of the framework parties supported Al-Halbousi’s candidate as he had the largest (Sunni) bloc with the Kurds, and others went for candidates who were more moderate and had an understanding with the government.”[/size]
[size=45]A member of the Al-Hikma Movement, led by Ammar Al-Hakim, says that the country is going through a delicate situation with “the possibility that international powers might want to drag Iraq into one of the axes, so we need a legislative institution that cooperates and interacts with the government and important laws.”[/size]
[size=45]Al-Aboudi spoke about the presence of what he called “external and internal interference and buying of debts” in Saturday’s session, which complicated the situation and called for the session to be adjourned before the conflict between representatives developed and the situation could not be controlled.[/size]
[size=45]In the coming hours, Al-Aboudi suggests “withdrawing the names of candidates or adding others” to the list of contenders for the position of Speaker of Parliament, indicating that “the framework is moving to choose a person who enjoys Sunni consensus and works to calm the situation.”[/size]
[size=45]The disruption of the session to select the Speaker of Parliament was subject to criticism, and MP Mohamed Anouz called for respecting the dates of the sessions, while noting that “work within Parliament has become a matter of agreements and not the law.”[/size]
[size=45]He also explained that there is a disregard for Article 88 of the Parliament’s internal regulations, which includes referring any dispute within the Council to the Legal Committee, including the issue of “adding a paragraph to the agenda and adjourning the session.”[/size]
[size=45]Anouz spoke about another legal dispute, which was not presented to the committee either, regarding talk about the possibility of all five candidates in the first round returning to compete in the second, and not just the top two winners.[/size]
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