It seems that the coordinating framework of the ruling party in Iraq has already begun outlining a map of the Shiite seats that will emerge from the upcoming parliamentary elections in the country in 2025, especially since the Sunni component has failed to select a new president to succeed the dismissed Mohammed al-Halbousi for more than five months.
After efforts to change the internal system of parliament, Mahmoud al-Hayani, a member of the Fatah Alliance, affirmed today, Tuesday, that dissolving parliament at the present time is the most appropriate option.
Dissolving parliament in Iraq is subject to Article 64 of the Iraqi Constitution, which stipulates that parliament can be dissolved in one of two ways: either at the request of the prime minister and with the approval of the speaker of parliament, or at the request of one-third of the parliament members to vote on its dissolution by majority.
The position of parliament speaker has been traditionally allocated to Sunni representatives according to the political custom prevailing in Iraq since the formation of the political system after 2003, while the positions of prime minister and president are assigned to Shia and Kurdish representatives respectively.
Al-Hayani stated in a statement followed by “Al-Alam Al-Jadid” that “the political vacuum that the House of Representatives has been experiencing for more than five months without a parliament speaker is a legal violation,” adding that “dissolving parliament at the present time is the most appropriate option.”
He added that “the position of the parliament speaker is not necessarily Sunni, but it is a political norm produced by the political process after 2003, and the solution to the political problems in Iraq lies in abandoning this norm and dealing with positions according to the majority.”
Parliamentarian Shalan Al-Karim, the candidate for the presidency of parliament, announced on April 17th the withdrawal of his candidacy for the presidency of the parliament and his withdrawal from the “Taqadum” alliance chaired by Mohammed Al-Halbousi, attributing this to “much unjustified confusion based on injustice, slander, and betrayal of close associates to avoid the prevailing controversy.”
The Federal Supreme Court responded on April 1st to the lawsuit to cancel the parliament session scheduled to elect a new parliament speaker by “lack of jurisdiction,” coming after a month of its response to a lawsuit nominating a candidate for the parliament speaker position for the same reason. The court also postponed the hearing on the lawsuit to revoke the membership of MP Shalan Al-Karim until the 29th of this month.
The House of Representatives held an extraordinary session on January 13th to elect a new parliament speaker. The first round of voting ended with the victory of the “Taqadum” party’s Shalan Al-Karim with 152 votes out of 314 votes. However, verbal altercations occurred inside the council hall, leading the council presidency to adjourn the session until further notice, and no other session has been held to date to elect a speaker.
According to the internal regulations of parliament, if the position of the speaker becomes vacant for any reason, a replacement must be elected by an absolute majority in the first session held to fill the vacancy, according to the political balance between the blocs.
The vote for the parliament speaker requires a quorum of half plus one of the total number of parliamentary seats, which the Sunni forces do not possess. The “Taqadum” party, which holds the majority of Sunni seats, has only about 35 seats.
Parliament failed in four attempts to elect a replacement for Al-Halbousi due to the lack of consensus on a single candidate amid Sunni fragmentation and the coordinating framework’s insistence on nominating new figures or retaining Mohsen Al-Mandlawi, the first deputy speaker of parliament, as acting president.
The Federal Supreme Court decided in November 2023 to terminate the membership of Parliament Speaker Mohammed Al-Halbousi due to a case filed against him by MP Laith Al-Dulaimi, accusing him of forging his resignation. This ruling marked the end of their membership.
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