Iraqi parliament continues to face deadlock in electing new speaker: lawmaker

Shafaq News/ The Iraqi parliament remains in a stalemate over electing a new speaker, a position left vacant for over eight months following the annulment of Mohammed al-Halboosi's membership by the Federal Court.

Iraq, a mosaic of different ethnic and religious groups, is governed by complex power-sharing arrangements. The largely ceremonial role of the president traditionally goes to a Kurd, that of prime minister to a Shiite, while the speaker of parliament is usually Sunni. 

The new speaker will replace al-Halboosi, the influential politician dismissed by Iraq's top court in November after a lawmaker accused him of forging a resignation letter.

Al-Halboosi has been the country's highest-ranking Sunni official since he first became a speaker in 2018.

The Coordination Framework, a consortium of mainly Iran-backed Shiite political forces that dominates the legislative body, had set July 20 as the deadline to resolve Sunni disputes over the position, but no progress has been made.

"As of now, there is no political or parliamentary agreement on setting a specific date for a session to elect a new speaker," Bassem al-Ghurabi, a member of the "Ishraqat Kanoon" parliamentary bloc, told Shafaq News Agency.

"The disagreements between the Sunni parties persist and remain unresolved both inside and outside the parliament," al-Ghurabi added. "There is no consensus on a candidate. Once the political blocs within the Sunni component agree on a specific candidate, the parliament presidium will proceed to hold a session for the election of the new speaker."

A vote in May was the closest yet to selecting a new head of the 329-member parliament, with 311 lawmakers showing up for the session and the leading candidate falling just seven votes short.