Divisions emerge within the Shiite Coordination Framework over Sunni candidates for parliament speaker

Shafaq News/Internal divisions emerged within the Coordination Framework, a consortium of mainly Iran-backed Shiite political forces, over potential candidates to succeed the ousted speaker of parliament, Mohammad al-Halboosi, a source revealed on Wednesday.

The insider, who spoke to Shafaq News Agency under the condition of anonymity, said that the Sunni blocs have two candidates for the position.

The first, according to the source, is Salem al-Issawi, a Sunni lawmaker from the "Taqadum" party led by al-Halboosi himself, who is backed by his powerful Sunni ally in the Sovereignty Alliance, Khamis al-Khanjar.

"The second candidate is Muthanna Al-Samarrai, the head of the al-Azm alliance," the source added.

"The Coordination Framework has not agreed on a candidate yet. In fact, they are divided over who will take over after al-Halboosi." He added, "the State of Law bloc backs al-Issawi, while the al-Fatah believe al-Samarrai is a better suite."

"The main Sunni players are yet to concur on a single candidate as well," the leading figure continued, "the vote on a new speaker is expected to be postponed to later today, or maybe Thursday."

Meanwhile, a well-informed parliamentary source stated that the parliament session on Wednesday will not witness the election of a new speaker due to ongoing disagreements among Sunni political forces.

" The poll was removed from the session's agenda," the source said. "the lawmakers will convene solely to vote on extending the election commission's mandate."

The Sovereignty Alliance in a statement on Tuesday authorized leaders al-Halbousi and al-Khanjar to choose a successor for the latter.

Under Iraq's power-sharing formula, the speaker of the parliament should be a Sunni, the president a Kurd, and the prime minister, who enjoys a vast range of powers, is a Shiite.