Politics

Iraq Federal Supreme Court rules parliament's decision to reopen the door for new presidential candidates was unconstitutional

"This type of decision only needs the attendance of 50+1 of the parliament members in the session, and the decision could be passed with the votes of 50+1 of the attendees, which is 84 members."

Dler S. Mohammed 2022/03/01 15:20

Iraqi Federal Supreme Court (FSC) session, March 1, 2022. (Photo: Shivan Jabari/Kurdistan 24)

Iraq Iraqi Parliament Iraqs Federal Supreme Court FSC Iraqs President

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - Iraq's Federal Supreme Court (FSC) ruled on Tuesday that the parliament's recent decision to reopen the door for submitting new candidates for the Iraqi presidency was unconstitutional.

The FSC held a session on Tuesday to discuss the constitutionality of the parliament's decision that lasted hours and concluded with the ruling that the decision was unconstitutional.

The court specified that it would have been constitutional if parliament members had decided to reopen the door. However, it is not constitutional if the presidency of the parliament decides to do so by itself.

"The parliament will meet soon to reopen the door for submitting new candidates for Iraq's presidency," Vian Sabri, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) parliamentary bloc, told Kurdistan 24 on Tuesday. "This type of decision only needs the attendance of 50+1 of the parliament members in the session, and the decision could be passed with the votes of 50+1 of the attendees, which is 84 members."

The tripartite alliance formed by the Shiite Sadrists Movement, the Sunni Al-Siyada alliance, and the Kurdish KDP has 177 seats in the parliament, which is way more than the number of votes needed to pass this decision.

On Feb. 15, the top Iraqi court ruled that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is obligated to "hand over all oil production from oil fields in the Kurdistan Region and other areas from which the KRG's Ministry of Natural Resources extracted oil" to the federal government.

That FSC decision came a mere week after the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) candidate for the Iraqi presidency, Hoshyar Zebari, was disqualified from the race.

Top officials from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the Kurdistan Region's political elite, and Iraqi political parties and leaders denounced these two decisions.