Sunni blocs agree with the coordination framework on an extraordinary session to elect Al-Halbousi’s replacement
A Sunni representative revealed, on Wednesday, an agreement between the Sunni and Shiite blocs to hold an extraordinary session to elect a new speaker of the House of Representatives, stressing that the acting Speaker of the House, Mohsen al-Mandalawi, will inform the representatives next week of the date of the upcoming session.
The representative, who preferred not to be named, said in a statement to Shafaq News Agency, “There is an agreement between the Sunni political blocs and the coordination framework to hold an extraordinary session of the House of Representatives to elect a new Speaker of the House, and the Acting Speaker of the House, Mohsen Al-Mandalawi, will inform the representatives that a session will be held next week to elect New Speaker of Parliament.
He pointed out that “there is a competition for the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives between Representatives Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani and Salem Al-Issawi, but Al-Issawi has a great chance of assuming the position after more than 10 representatives defected from the Taqadum Party and announced the formation of a new bloc, while others considered themselves independent representatives.”
On November 14, 2023, the Federal Supreme Court, “the highest judicial authority in Iraq,” decided to terminate the membership of Parliament Speaker Muhammad Al-Halbousi, against the backdrop of a lawsuit filed against him by Representative Laith Al-Dulaimi, in which he accused him of forging his (Al-Dulaimi’s) resignation from membership in the House of Representatives. As a result, the Federal Court ruled to terminate their membership (Al-Halbousi and Al-Dulaimi).
On November 21, 2023, the Presidency of the Iraqi Council of Representatives decided to officially terminate the membership of Council Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi.
Since then until this June, the House of Representatives held several sessions to elect a new Speaker of the House, but the disagreements of the Sunni political forces prevented this.
On June 6, the representative of the Coordination Framework, Salem Al-Anbaki, confirmed to Shafaq News Agency, “The defection of a group of representatives from the Taqaddam Party has made it lose the right to claim to represent the Sunni parliamentary majority, and the majority has become clear to the other party, whose cohesion has been shown by the steadfastness of representatives within the Sovereignty and Determination Alliance.” The decision is now with them and they are part of the representatives of progress.”
On June 6, 11 representatives in the Iraqi parliament and members of the provincial councils announced their defection from the “Taqaddum” party bloc, headed by Muhammad al-Halbousi, and the establishment of a political front called the “Initiative” bloc.
In the statement, the MPs and dissident members attributed the reason for their taking this step to “the state of stagnation that political life has reached, and the inability of the legislative authority to elect a new speaker of Parliament for many months, which prompted us to establish the (Initiative) bloc to break the closure in the political scene.”
Shafaq.com