Shafaq News – Baghdad

Shakhawan Abdullah of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) bloc and Rebar Karim of the Al-Mawqif Movement announced on Monday their candidacy for the post of second deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament.

A source told Shafaq News that the KDP’s parliamentary bloc agreed during a meeting at the parliament building to officially nominate Abdullah for the post as part of ongoing political understandings within the legislature.

Earlier today, parliament elected MP Adnan Fayhan as the first deputy speaker after choosing Haibet Al-Halbousi as speaker during the first session of the sixth legislative term.

Under political conventions in place since 2003, the parliamentary leadership consists of a speaker and two deputies, with the speaker’s post allocated to a Sunni lawmaker, the first deputy to a Shiite, and the second deputy to a Kurd. The election of the speaker is followed by the selection of the two deputies, then the election of the president within 30 days, after which the largest parliamentary bloc is tasked with forming a government.

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