Regional tension pushes the parliament speaker’s file to “the shelf of oblivion” and there are expec

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[size=52]Regional tension pushes the parliament speaker’s file to “the shelf of oblivion” and there are expectations of a sudden decision[/size]

[size=45]The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has led to the “forgetting” of the issue of electing a Speaker of Parliament to succeed the dismissed Mohammed al-Halbousi about a year ago, which observers considered an exploitation and use by the political blocs of the ongoing war in the region. However, expectations supported by representatives and observers indicated the possibility of deciding the position “suddenly”.
Member of Parliament within the Coordination Framework, Mohammed al-Ziyadi, said that “the dangerous escalation taking place in Lebanon and the region in general has certainly had a significant impact on many internal political issues, including the election of the Speaker of Parliament.”
Al-Ziyadi added that “all political forces, the Parliament, and the Iraqi government are working in a real and serious manner to keep Iraq out of the circle of conflict and prevent any violation of its sovereignty or threat to its national security, and this matter has occupied everyone recently and up until this moment.”
He stressed that “the political forces, especially the Coordination Framework, are determined to decide the presidency of the House of Representatives, but the political differences between the Sunni forces are still ongoing and exist without any solutions, and everyone knows the difficulty of holding any election session without Sunni-Sunni consensus, and the dialogues are almost suspended due to recent developments, and perhaps in the coming days, the dialogues will resume again in the hope of resolving the issue soon.”
The representative of the Coordination Framework concluded by saying: “We have no intention of obstructing the election of the Speaker of Parliament, with the aim of keeping Mohsen Al-Mandalawi as Speaker of Parliament, as even Al-Mandalawi himself does not want this, and everyone is in favor of expediting the resolution of the issue, but the basis of the problem and all this delay is the Sunni-Sunni conflict.”
The crisis of the Speaker of Parliament extends to November 2023, when the Federal Supreme Court decided to terminate the membership of the Speaker of Parliament, Mohammed al-Halbousi, against the backdrop of a case filed against him by Representative Laith al-Dulaimi, in which he accused him of forging al-Dulaimi’s resignation from the House of Representatives, and the ruling ended with the termination of the membership of both.
On May 18, the House of Representatives failed to elect a new speaker after failing to hold a decisive third round to tip the scales in favor of one of the candidates, MP Salem Al-Issawi of the Sovereignty Party, and Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani, who is supported by the Progress Party.
The region is experiencing great tension, as Israel has entered into an open war in Lebanon, in addition to an Iranian strike against Israel, and there is information about Israel’s intention to strike Iraq in response to the participation of armed factions in the war alongside the Lebanese Hezbollah and their targeting of Israeli sites.
For his part, political researcher Mujasha’ Al-Tamimi explains that “the impact of the war in Lebanon is great on Iraq and I believe that it has affected all authorities, but in the issue of electing a speaker of the House of Representatives, the reason lies in the fact that preparations have not ended, even though things were heading towards choosing the candidate of the largest Sunni bloc, Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani, who is supported by the largest forces of the Coordination Framework, as well as the Progress Party, but the effects of the war and the lack of seriousness of Progress have affected the resolution of this issue.”
Al-Tamimi points out that, “Based on that, the coming days may resolve this problem, if the head of the Progress Party, which has become closer to the Iranian axis, agrees, especially after resolving the crisis of electing the Diyala and Kirkuk governments.”
“Some parties in the framework do not hide their desire to keep this position in favor of Mohsen al-Mandalawi, considering that it has great symbolism and may support Mandalawi’s popularity in the strong elections. Also, keeping this position in Mandalawi’s hands is in favor of the head of the Progress Party, Mohammed al-Halbousi, and therefore I say that there is collusion and obstruction of this position in favor of the parties with the largest numbers in parliament, which are the Progress Party and the forces of the Coordination Framework,” he added.
Al-Tamimi continues, “It seems that keeping this position vacant will affect the image of Iraq, so there may be a sudden resolution to this issue, especially after al-Halbousi entered into a new alliance with the framework, which made him obtain a comfortable parliamentary majority. Therefore, I say that al-Mashhadani may be the most likely, or there may be an agreement to open the internal regulations and amend Article 12 of it, and all of this is in al-Halbousi’s favor.”
The position of Speaker of the House of Representatives is the Sunni share according to the political custom prevailing in Iraq since the formation of the political system after 2003, while the positions of Prime Minister go to the Shiites and the President of the Republic to the Kurds.
The vote for the Speaker of the House of Representatives requires a quorum of half plus one of the number of seats in parliament, which the Sunni forces do not have, as the number is 166 representatives, and the Progress Party, which has the majority of Sunni seats, only has about 35 seats.
In addition, political analyst Nizar Haidar explains that “the political forces included in the State Administration Coalition, which formed Al-Sudani’s government, have been procrastinating for more than a year on the issue of electing a new Speaker of the House of Representatives, and it was clear that a hidden hand was tampering with all attempts and efforts to elect a new speaker, and the results were zero. Despite all the party and bloc agreements that were announced during the past period, and despite the American, Iranian, Turkish and Gulf foreign interventions, what happened did not go beyond laughing at the beards and distracting Iraqi public opinion within the framework of theories of blackmail and conspiracy among some against each other and the policy of deferring the crisis.”
Haidar confirms that “the current threats in which Iraq is a party came to distract the political forces from many pending files, in which they found a golden opportunity to occupy the Iraqis with what Iraq is exposed to and to freeze these files, including the relationship between Erbil and Baghdad, oil and currency smuggling, the election of the Speaker of the Council of Representatives, the integrity and judiciary scandal, the spy cell, electricity and the ministerial amendment.”
He adds that “all political forces are benefiting from the current situation because it covered up their scandals and gave them a new opportunity to mislead public opinion, and thus to continue the methodology of corruption, failure and postponing crises. If it weren’t for this regional crisis, there would now be a crisis of confidence in them from the people,” indicating that “electing a new Speaker of Parliament no longer has any taste, as the current Council of Representatives has less than a year left, and therefore the political forces, Sunnis in particular, are no longer enthusiastic about the issue.”
The "Progress" and "Leadership" forces support Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani, while "Azm", "Al-Hasm", and "Sovereignty" stand behind supporting Salem Al-Issawi, with a clear division within the forces of the Coordination Framework.[/size]
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