Lawmakers of the Sunni Sovereignty, Azm, and Hasm blocs “have decided to boycott the parliamentary sessions until a new speaker is elected,” Abdulrahim al-Shammari, a Shiite MP, told Rudaw’s Hastyar Qadir.
The three blocs agreed late Friday to support the nomination of Salem al-Issawi for the position of Speaker of the Parliament, calling for expecting the process of setting a new speaker. Their lawmakers did not attend Sunday’s parliamentary session.
Lawmakers of the Sunni Taqadum party, headed by ousted speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi, insist that the party is entitled to the speakership on account of having the largest Sunni bloc in the parliament.
“The Iraqi parliament speaker post is an entitlement of the Taqadum party as the largest Sunni bloc and we will not compromise on it,” Yehia al-Issawi, Taqadum MP, told Rudaw’s Nahro Mohammed on Saturday, “Taqadum alone has 45 seats in the parliament, those three blocs combined have 30 seats,”
The parliament has been without a leader since the Federal Supreme Court on November 14 ruled to end Halbousi’s tenures as speaker and revoke his parliamentary membership.
The legislature previously tried to vote on the new speaker on January 13 but after repeated delays no candidate was able to obtain an absolute majority, pushing the vote into a second round which was never held. Taqadum’s Shaalan al-Karim and Sovereignty’s Salem al-Issawi received the highest number of votes in the first round.
Since Halbousi’s sacking, First Deputy Speaker Muhsin al-Mandalawi has chaired meetings of the legislature. The parliament currently has no scheduled date to vote on a new speaker.
