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Iraq's parliament fails to elect speaker as militants advance towards Baghdad

July 14, 2014 at 12:46 pm

The Iraqi parliament failed on Sunday to elect a speaker despite the Sunni bloc’s nomination of their candidate. Lawmakers adjourned the session until tomorrow delaying the formation of a new government as insurgents continued their advance towards Baghdad.

Member of Parliament (MP) Mahdi Al-Hafez, who chaired the two sessions in the presence of Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, said that consultations should take place before a decision is made. “It’s wrong to vote today while we are in disagreement,” he said.

The main Sunni coalition, the Alliance of Iraqi Forces, objected to the adjournment after it named its Diyala MP as nominee for the speaker’s position.

The Iraqi political scene is suffering from a deadlock due to Al-Maliki’s refusal to step down despite internal and external criticism of his divisive policies which marginalised the Sunni population.

Al-Maliki’s opponents, including Sunnis, called on the Shia bloc, the National Alliance, to put forward another candidate for the prime minister’s position. Al-Maliki, however, insists on his right to form a government, citing his party’s highest representation in the parliament.

Pro-Maliki MPs have conditioned the election of a speaker on the approval of Al-Maliki’s stay in power for a third term.

By convention, Iraq’s prime minister should be Shia, the parliament speaker Sunni, and the president Kurdish.

The constitution stipulates that a new president should be elected within 30 days of the first session of the parliament, which convened on July 1 but failed to elect a speaker. The president of the republic tasks the nominee of the largest parliamentary bloc to form the cabinet within 15 days of his election, while the prime minister names the members of his cabinet within 30 days of his appointment.

Sunday’s session was held amid international and domestic pressures to move forward on the formation of a government

UN envoy to Iraq, Nikolay Mladinov, urged the parliament to name a speaker, warning of chaos if it failed to make progress towards the formation of a government. The US embassy said that delaying the formation of a government will only benefit the Islamic State (ISIS).

The Shia supreme leader Ayatollah Al-Sistani called for abiding by constitutional limits in selecting the heads of the three branches of government, while former Iraqi prime minister and leader of the National Alliance Al-Maliki warned: “If we don’t agree within 48 hours, we will never agree.”