Shafaq News- Baghdad

A delegation from the Shiite Coordination Framework (CF), the largest bloc in Iraq’s parliament, will meet with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) on Sunday to address the deadlock over electing the country’s next President, an Iraqi official told Shafaq News.

Wafa Mohammed, a KDP member, explained that the CF seeks to resolve the election swiftly and smoothly, with the goal of finalizing the nomination of Iraq's next premier shortly after the presidency is settled.

The meeting comes ahead of a parliamentary session scheduled for Sunday to vote on the presidency. Earlier this week, Parliament Speaker Haibet Al-Halbousi postponed the session due to a lack of quorum, reporting that only 85 lawmakers were present. He added that Kurdish blocs requested the delay to allow additional time for consultations, particularly between the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the two main parties in the Kurdistan Region.

Iraq’s informal power-sharing arrangement reserves the presidency for the Kurdish component, traditionally contested between the KDP and the PUK, while the premiership is held by a Shiite figure and the parliamentary speakership by a Sunni.

According to constitutional timelines, parliament must elect a president within one month of its first session, a deadline that already expired on January 28.

Read more: Iraq’s Presidential Race: Kurdish candidates competing for the post