A “final” session tomorrow, Thursday, to elect the Speaker of Parliament.. and choosing Al-Mashhadan

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[size=52]A “final” session tomorrow, Thursday, to elect the Speaker of Parliament.. and choosing Al-Mashhadani is not decisive[/size]

[size=45]Baghdad/ Tamim Al-Hassan[/size]
[size=45]The Sunni forces have less than 48 hours left to decide on the name of the parliament speaker candidate before the session tomorrow, Thursday, called for by the “Coordination Framework”, which is described as a “final session”.
According to information, it seems that the path to the parliament presidency has become easier, after the removal of Khamis al-Khanjar, head of the Sovereignty Party, who was preparing a “surprise” before the “de-Baathification” file was brought against him, and he was forced to submit his resignation from the party presidency.
Before that, al-Khanjar, along with Muthanna al-Samarra’i, leader of the “Azm” coalition, secretly supported Salem al-Issawi, who is from the same clan as the former, for the parliament presidency, although the two parties had previously announced their support for Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, but the support was hiding undisclosed details, according to leaks.
In contrast, Mohammed al-Halbousi, the former parliament speaker - whose removal from office by a court order late last year due to a “forgery” case sparked an ongoing crisis - is secretly supporting Ziad al-Janabi for the presidency of the council, while the former had officially announced, as did the al-Khanjar-Samarrai team, his support for al-Mashhadani.
Has the position been decided for al-Mashhadani?
A leader in the Hikma Movement led by Ammar al-Hakim, answers this, saying that “the Coordination Framework, despite the existence of different visions, has decided to support al-Mashhadani.”
According to a brief statement issued by the Shiite alliance the day before yesterday, it said that it had met and “decided to hold a session to elect the parliament speaker next Thursday (tomorrow).”
The statement added that “the acting parliament speaker will call for the session, which will be dedicated to electing the president only.”
These were the third dates proposed by the “framework” regarding the elections of the parliament speaker, the last of which was a session set for last Saturday, which did not take place.
“The Coordination Framework supports Al-Mashhadani because he is the candidate of the 55-member Sunni bloc, which is the largest bloc,” said Rahim Al-Aboudi, a leader in Al-Hikma. However, that does not mean that the position will go to Al-Mashhadani decisively.
MP Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani, the former Speaker of Parliament, had twice failed to vote for the position of Speaker of Parliament in parliamentary sessions dedicated to this matter.
Last month, it was leaked that Al-Mashhadani had received the support of Nouri Al-Maliki, the head of the State of Law Coalition, so he quickly wrote posts saying that he was the candidate of “national consensus,” as he described it.
It is believed that Al-Mashhadani is Maliki’s favorite for reasons related to the latter’s support in the issue of withdrawing US forces in 2011, and preventing the Sadrist movement from declaring itself the largest bloc after the 2021 elections.
Al-Halbousi supported Al-Mashhadani after the withdrawal of Shaalan Al-Karim, the latter’s candidate, after he received a signal that he might be included in the “de-Baathification” campaign, which is the same file that Khamis Al-Khanjar recently moved against.
The leader of Progress, who did not prefer Al-Mashhadani but was forced to, according to statements by members of his party, so he later abandoned him and replaced him “unannounced” with MP Ziad Al-Janabi, who had defected from Al-Halbousi in ambiguous circumstances.
It was recently said that the group of 55 MPs (the Sunni majority), led by Al-Halbousi, and which includes all Sunni forces except “Al-Khanjar and Al-Samarrai”, had submitted to Al-Maliki, in a written paper, Al-Janabi’s name for the presidency of parliament, in an agreement concluded in the past weeks.
The so-called “Sunni minority” evaded Halbousi’s camp by announcing its support for Al-Mashhadani instead of Salem Al-Issawi, after Halbousi’s agreement with Al-Maliki, but its goal was to hold a session to elect the Speaker of Parliament, “at any cost,” after which Al-Issawi would be voted for, according to leaks.
These leaks say that the “Sunni minority” was relying on Al-Issawi’s previous results, who needed only 6 votes in one of the parliament sessions dedicated to choosing the Speaker of Parliament to win the position (the Speaker of Parliament needs 166 votes).
This group is facing refusal from Al-Maliki and Mohsen Al-Mandalawi, who has been leading Parliament by proxy for about a year, to hold a session without a prior Sunni agreement on a single candidate, so “Al-Khanjar and Al-Samarrai” were waiting for the opportunity to hold the session, also relying on promises from the Coordination Framework representatives, especially the young representatives, to vote for Al-Issawi, in addition to news of his support by Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani.
Who is the President?
Rahim Al-Aboudi points out that the Coordination Framework’s announcement of holding a session on Thursday, which is a “decisive and final session,” means that it will go in two directions; the first is to elect Al-Mashhadani, or the withdrawal of candidates and the presentation of alternatives.
Last week, the “55 MPs” group said similar things, that parliament has two options; Al-Mashhadani or choosing another candidate.
However, Al-Issawi, according to Sunni parties, refuses to withdraw so far, due to “the MPs’ desire for him to be the Speaker of Parliament,” according to what those parties say.
And Al-Khanjar, although he announced his support for Al-Mashhadani, in a statement at the end of last week (Friday), appeared as if he was rejecting the new roadmap to resolve the issue of the Speaker of Parliament, and revealed that he would call for an “exceptional” meeting of all Sunni forces (its date was last Sunday) to choose a consensus candidate.
Sunni sources say that “Al-Khanjar was preparing for a large bloc that was preparing to control all the files related to the component, before he decided to resign.” Al
-Khanjar’s sudden resignation
The Sovereignty Party announced yesterday, in an official document addressed to the Electoral Commission, that Khamis Al-Khanjar had resigned from the party’s presidency.
The document was in response to a previous request to summon Al-Khanjar to appear before the Accountability and Justice Commission for investigation.
This is the second time that businessman and politician Khamis Al-Khanjar has been the subject of leaks about his relationship with the banned “Baath Party.”
In 2018, Al-Khanjar suddenly withdrew from the elections, while information circulated that he did so because he was “included in the accountability and justice procedures.”
Representatives from the State of Law Coalition said at the time that the Accountability and Justice Commission had canceled a decision to include Al-Khanjar in its procedures, at the request of a leading figure in the Shiite National Alliance, whose name was not revealed.
Al-Khanjar was then candidate number (1) for Baghdad within the Iraqi Decision Coalition, led by former Vice President Osama Al-Nujaifi.
Rahim Al-Aboudi believes that “Sunni forces are the ones who moved this file against Al-Khanjar because of the bone-breaking battle taking place between them,” considering that “it is not in the interest of the Coordination Framework to raise this issue now.”
Two years ago, the Accountability and Justice Commission (formerly the De-Baathification Commission) rejected, in a statement, the government’s request to transfer its archives and files to the judiciary in preparation for their closure.
The government request at that time came in accordance with the ministerial program and the political agreement concluded between the ruling coalition forces (the state administration).
The commission confirmed that there are millions of documents still on their way to being audited and they contain the names of a large number of those included in the de-Baathification procedure.
The auditing of most of the documents has been delayed for more than 15 years for reasons that may have been “deliberate” according to sources, and administrative procrastination according to what the commission says.
There are no less than one million Iraqis included in the de-Baathification procedure, at least 25% of whom are from the former security services, according to the commission’s figures.
The Sunni forces, which are the parties in Iraq that appear to be the most targeted by the de-Baathification procedures, have tried several times to transfer this file to the judiciary, and they considered the delay in resolving the names of those included behind it to be political and punitive motives.
In 2016, a political agreement was reached between what was known as the “National Alliance,” the political umbrella for the Shiite forces, and the Sunni parties to legislate a law called “Accountability and Banning the Dissolved Baath Party.”
The new law includes 22 articles after the “issue” was raised, with the latter to be presented by a law alone, and the de-Baathification file to be referred to the judiciary.
In the end, the Sunnis voted, in agreement with the Shiites, on the law banning the Baath in 2016, while the other law has not been legislated yet.
Sunni forces have always seen de-Baathification as a tool of repression and a card against opponents that often appears during election seasons.
This time, the Sunnis are warning against falling into the trap again, as they stipulate that a law such as “personal status,” a Shiite demand, be passed through a deal or what has become known as a “basket of laws for sects,” and perhaps also mixed with the parliament speaker’s file.
Al-Aboudi says that “the Coordination Framework refused to link the parliament speaker to those laws that the coalition considers important, especially the general amnesty and personal status.”[/size]
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