Parliament ignores the paragraph on electing the president, and Mandalawi may remain until the end o

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[size=52]Parliament ignores the paragraph on electing the president, and Mandalawi may remain until the end of the session[/size]

[size=45]Despite the Coordination Framework calling for a session to decide the position of Parliament Speaker next Saturday, the agenda published by the Parliament’s media department set Sunday as the date for the session, but it
was completely devoid of the paragraph on choosing the president. The agenda included six paragraphs, including voting on 4 important laws, the most important of which was voting on the proposed Personal Status Law, voting on the Popular Mobilization Forces Service and Retirement Law, in addition to voting on the draft law amending the second general amnesty law.
As well as voting on the draft law to return properties to their owners covered by some decisions of the “dissolved” Revolutionary Command Council.
While doubts hover over the success of next Saturday’s session, which is designated to elect a Parliament Speaker, despite the Coordination Framework announcing its determination to proceed with the session, even if it witnesses a boycott by Sunni forces, the date has not been officially set yet, indicating the possibility of failure, which observers believe will benefit the framework and some Sunni forces alike.
MP for the Coordination Framework, Mohammed Al-Ziyadi, says, “The framework forces are determined to resolve the issue of electing the Speaker of Parliament during a session to be held next Saturday, and they have left this week as a deadline for the Sunni political forces to agree on a single candidate.”
Al-Ziyadi adds, “The failure of the Sunni political forces to reach any agreement during these days will not prevent us from holding a session to elect the Speaker of Parliament on Saturday, and we are waiting for the session to be officially set by the Presidency of Parliament in the coming hours, and there is support from Sunni and Kurdish political parties to hold this session.”
He stresses that “there is no justification for obstructing the election of the Speaker of Parliament, and the obstruction that has occurred over the past months is the responsibility of the Sunni political forces in conflict with each other, and for this reason the Saturday session will be held and the voting will go ahead even if some Sunni parties boycott, and the closest to the scene is Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani.”
The forces of "Progress", "National Masses", "Decisiveness", "Iraqi National Project", "Leadership" and "Initiative" issued a statement last night, Wednesday, in which they affirmed their adherence to the necessity of resolving the issue of the presidency of the Council according to the outcomes of the sessions attended by the leaders of the Coordination Framework, representatives of the two Kurdish parties and heads of the Sunni parties, which reached two paths and no third: the first is that all competing parties withdraw their candidates, and that all national forces present commit to supporting candidate Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani, or take legal measures in the House of Representatives to present a new candidate from the Sunni political majority (the same blocs that issued the statement). Yesterday,
the head of the Sovereignty Party, Khamis Al-Khanjar, called for a meeting to end the political deadlock regarding the crisis of the presidency of the Parliament, and to agree on a single candidate for the presidency of the Council of Representatives.
It is noteworthy that the Coordination Framework, two days ago, in its regular meeting attended by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani, called on members of the House of Representatives to hold a meeting next Saturday to resolve the presidency of the Council and put an end to the vacancy of this important position throughout the past period.
Voting 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.
For his part, Azm Al-Hamdani, a leader in the Azm Alliance, stated that “until now, there is no Sunni political agreement to hold a session to elect the Speaker of Parliament, nor is there a prior agreement between the Coordination Framework and any Sunni political party to hold a session on Saturday.”
He pointed out that “until now, there are no guarantees that the session to elect the Speaker of Parliament will be successful next Saturday, especially in light of the ongoing political differences, but there is clear and significant support from the Coordination Framework to pass Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani.”
Al-Hamdani added that “the failure to set an official date for holding a session to elect the Speaker of Parliament by the Presidency of the Council of Representatives until now confirms that political differences prevent this, and there is fear of repeating the failure to resolve this issue if a session is set without political guarantees to resolve the issue and vote on one of the candidates during it.”
The Iraqi parliament has failed five times in a row to resolve the issue during the past months in light of the division between the political parties to support one of the candidates for the position, namely Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani, the candidate of the Progress Party, and Salem Al-Issawi, the candidate of Sovereignty, Determination and Decisiveness, who received the majority of votes during the last session of the Iraqi parliament.
On November 14 of last year, the Federal Supreme Court in Iraq decided to terminate the membership of Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi and dismiss him from his position, following his conviction for forging official records, which led to disputes between the various political forces regarding the selection of a replacement for al-Halbousi.
In addition, political affairs researcher Mohammed Ali al-Hakim explains that “the Coordination Framework, by calling for a session to elect the Parliament Speaker next Saturday, wanted to remove any accusation that it is the one obstructing this file in order to keep Mohsen al-Mandalawi until the end of the parliamentary session, as some are promoting, which is what parties within the framework actually want.”
Al-Hakim points out that “the Coordination Framework knows very well that resolving this file cannot be done in this way, i.e. by imposing a fait accompli policy on the Sunni political parties, as this means failing the voting session again by breaking the quorum or causing problems inside the parliament dome, as happened previously.”
“It is likely that Mohsen al-Mandalawi will remain in the position of president for two reasons: the first is that some parties in the framework want this so that they can pass what they want in parliament without any opposition, and the second is that there are Sunni parties, specifically the Progress Party, who want this so that no president will come who will compete with Halbousi politically and electorally during the next phase.”
The position of Speaker of Parliament is considered the share of the “Sunni component,” 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 “Progress” and “Sadara” forces support Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, while “Azm,” “Al-Hasm,” and “Al-Siyada” stand behind supporting Salem al-Issawi, with a clear division within the forces of the Coordination Framework.[/size]
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