Iraqi parliament to convene following boycott from major blocs
Erbil (Kurdistan 24) – The new Iraqi parliament is set to hold its second session on Monday in the middle of pre-announced boycotts from major Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish parties.
The parliament session starts at noon with an agenda consisting of two main points.
The first one is to have a number of the members take their constitutional oath to formally and legally become members of the representative house. The second is to vote and elect the next president for Iraq.
On Saturday, the Sadrist parliamentary faction, which won 73 seats out of 329 in the last parliamentary elections in October, announced their boycott of Monday's session. It also announced suspending all talks with political parties over government formation.
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This was followed by the Shiite Coordination Framework announcing their boycott in a statement on Sunday. Then, the largest Kurdish political party, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), announced it too is boycotting the session.
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"To complete the ongoing consultations and dialogues between the political blocs, we decided not to attend the session of the parliament for tomorrow, Monday," read the KDP's statement.
On Sunday, the largest Sunni alliance in Iraq, al-Siyada Alliance, headed by businessman Khamis al-Khanjar, also announced that they have decided not to participate in the session in order to support dialogue among political parties.
The boycott also came after the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court decided on Sunday to temporarily suspend the KDP's nomination of Hoshyar Zebari for the presidency until a lawsuit registered against him is resolved.
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On Sunday night, parliament members from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) announced they were behind the lawsuit submitted to the federal court against Zebari.
The incumbent president of Iraq, Barham Salih, is the PUK's presidential candidate.
On Jan. 31, the Iraqi parliament announced the names of 25 candidates for the presidential election. On Jan. 9, it held its first session, during which the parliament presidency was elected.
According to the Iraqi constitution, lawmakers should elect a new Iraqi president from the candidates by a two-thirds majority of its members. Once elected, the new president will ask the largest parliamentary alliance to name a prime minister-designate to form a government within 30 days.