SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraqi Council of Representatives on Sunday re-elected Mohammed al-Halbousi, leader of Sunni Taqaddum Alliance, as the speaker of parliament.
The Iraqi Council of Representatives resumed its first session on Sunday evening, after former interim speaker Mohammed al-Mashhadani adjourned it due to disputes between Shia parties.
In a further complication, Mashahadani, who at 73 is the oldest member of parliament, was suddenly taken ill and transported to hospital by ambulance.
Khalid al-Daraji resumed the first session after he assumed the interim speaker.
Halbousi secured 200 votes of lawmakers, while Mashhadani, who was another candidate for the parliament’s speaker, received 14 votes.
Lawmakers will elect two deputies of the speaker in the next phase.
Parliament also has 30 days from the first session to elect the country’s new president, who will then ask the largest bloc in parliament to form a government.
The Sadrist Movement, led by Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, won nearly a fifth of the seats in the October parliamentary election – 73 out of the assembly’s total 329.
The Taqqadum Party, which draws support from minority Sunni Muslims, won 37 seats, according to the final results released by the electoral commission.
Former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law Alliance won 33 seats, the results showed. A distant second with 17 seats was the al-Fateh Alliance, the political arm of Hashid al-Shaabi.
Since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled minority Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraqi governments have been dominated by parties from the Shia majority, in coalitions that have included Kurdish parties.
Even though the Coordination Framework led by Hadi al-Amiri and Nouri al-Maliki called on the Sadrist Movement to form the largest bloc with the group, Sadr on Saturday insisted on a “national majority government”.
The Coordination Framework includes State of Law Alliance, al-Fateh Alliance, Ata Movement, National Forces Alliance, Haquq Movement and Fadhila party.
Both sides have held several rounds of talks in the past weeks, but have yet to strike a deal on the new cabinet.
According to officials from both sides, the Sadrist Movement wanted a national majority government while the Coordination Framework preferred a consensus government.
Last week, leader in the Coordination Framework Wail Rukabi said the group would form the largest parliamentary bloc if talks with Sadr failed.
“The Coordination Framework is the largest bloc with 90 seats and will form the government in the event that Sadr rejects a coalition with the group,” Baghdad Today quoted him as saying.
