Iraq parliament postpones vote on new government 

The Iraqi parliament has postponed by two days a vote scheduled yesterday  to grant confidence to the new cabinet of Prime Minister-designate Mohammad Allawi.

The vote was delayed after Shia blocs supporting Allawi and the Kurdish and Sunni blocs could not overcome their differences.

A member of the Al-Fatah Alliance, MP Haneen Al-Qaddo, said the session has been postponed in order to reach a political agreement with the blocs opposing the mechanisms used to select the ministers.

Al-Qaddo said the next session scheduled for tomorrow will witness granting confidence to the cabinet regardless of opposition and a full description of the nominated ministers’ qualifications.

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A lawmaker for the Al-Fatah Alliance, MP Fadel Al-Fatlawi, said the prime minister-designate met on Sunday with the political forces and discussed the most important points of difference.

He pointed out that the Sunni and Kurdish forces have reservations on the formation of Allawi’s government, noting that the political forces supporting Allawi preferred to postpone the vote to give space for new consultations with the President of the Kurdistan Democratic Party Masoud Barzani and Parliament Speaker Muhammad Al-Halbousi.

According to Al-Fatlawi, opposition forces also insist that the government’s program includes a commitment to declare a fixed date for early elections, a pledge to close the file of the kidnapped and the disappeared, and to return the displaced persons to cities which they had fled after the war against Daesh.