State of Law threatens to dissolve parliament over stalled presidential vote

Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraq’s parliament could face dissolution if it continues to delay the presidential vote, a lawmaker from the State of Law Coalition (SLC) warned on Wednesday, as the constitutional deadline has already passed.

Yousef Al-Kalabi told Shafaq News that failure to include the presidential election on the next parliamentary agenda would push his bloc to petition the Federal Supreme Court of Iraq to dissolve the legislature “for incapacity and exceeding the constitutional period.” He said the continued exclusion of the presidential vote has deepened political uncertainty. “The issue must be resolved,” he added.

Lawmakers omitted the presidential vote from the latest session agenda on Feb. 9 and 11, despite the expiration of the 30-day constitutional window. The deadline, calculated from parliament’s first session on Dec. 29, 2025, lapsed on Jan. 28, 2026. The race centers on caretaker Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, nominee of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and Nizar Amedi, nominee of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). More than 40 applicants were initially registered before Iraq’s judiciary and parliament narrowed the field to 14 approved candidates.

Since 2005, Iraq’s power-sharing arrangement has traditionally allocated the presidency to Kurdish parties, the premiership to Shiite blocs, and the speakership to Sunni forces. The PUK has historically held the presidency through figures including Jalal Talabani, Fuad Masum, Barham Salih, and Abdul Latif Rashid.

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