Al-Halbousi to Al-Khazali: Let's maintain political majority in choosing Parliament Speaker

Shafaq News / President of the Taqaddum Alliance Mohammed Al-Halbousi emphasized, on Sunday, the importance of maintaining the political majority in the upcoming parliamentary speaker election, which has sparked disputes and divisions among Sunni parliamentary blocs.

This came during a meeting between Al-Halbousi, accompanied by a delegation from the Taqaddum Alliance, with the Secretary-General of the Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq Qais al-Khazali, in which they discussed the general conditions and political developments in the country.

Al-Halbousi stressed during the meeting the importance of preserving the political majority in this position (Speaker of the House of Representatives), while considering national acceptability, aiming to achieve political stability in the council's work.

On his part, Al-Khazali emphasized the necessity of selecting the Speaker of the House of Representatives, given the significance of this position in reinforcing the legislative institution to carry out its duties.

This comes a day after the leader of Al-Siyada Alliance Khamees Al-Khanjar announced the formation of a "Sunni parliamentary majority" comprising Al-Siyada, Al-Azm, and Al-Hasm alliances to proceed with the process of selecting a new Speaker of the House of Representatives.

It is noteworthy that on Saturday, the Taqaddum Alliance rejected a statement issued by Al-Azm, Al-Siyada, and Al-Hasm alliances regarding the "Sunni majority" in the Iraqi parliament and the call for a session to elect a new parliament speaker, considering it an attempt at distortion and asserting that the majority is represented by the Taqaddum Alliance.

The Alliance stated, "We are surprised and reject the statement issued by Al-Azm, Al-Siyada, and Al-Hasm alliances describing themselves as the Sunni component majority. Despite all their attempts and their buying of some deputies with hefty sums of money and attempts to entice others, they do not possess the Sunni component majority in the parliament, and their deception cannot change the fact that the Sunni component majority is represented by Taqaddum."

The Alliance called on what it described as "our partners in the homeland" not to engage with these lies that have no truth in terms of parliamentary representation or societal representation.

The Taqaddum Alliance also urged the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice, and all oversight bodies to halt the “buying and selling auction that has harmed the political process and not to remain silent about these actions that are unfitting for the country.”

Furthermore, it called for “a high-level investigation.”

The Alliance emphasized its insistence on the right to represent the parliamentary majority represented by the Sunni component produced by the election results and the current parliamentary representation.

Al-Azm, Al-Siyada, and Al-Hasm alliances, which described themselves as the “Sunni majority”, reiterated on Saturday their commitment to proceeding with the election of a new parliament speaker in the Iraqi parliament, away from the Federal Court's procedures regarding the case raised regarding the previous speaker election session.

They called for including the election item in the upcoming session.

The parliamentary majority for the Sunni component stated that "the parliamentary majority for the Sunni component, represented by the Al-Azm, Al-Siyada, and Al-Hasm alliance, along with Al-Jamaheer Al-Wataniya Party and deputies from the National Accord bloc of the Sunni component, as well as independent deputies, gathered in Baghdad to discuss the constitutional entitlement related to the position of the Speaker of Parliament."

Since the Federal Supreme Court, the highest judicial authority in Iraq issued a decision on November 14, 2023, ending the membership of Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi, and following the formal termination of al-Halbousi's membership by the Iraqi parliament, political blocs have been unable to agree on a replacement for him.

The Iraqi parliament held an extraordinary session on January 13 to choose the new Speaker.

The first round of voting ended with the victory of the "Taqaddom" party's Shaalan al-Karim with 152 votes out of 314. MP Salem Al-Issawi followed him with 97 votes, MP Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani with 48 votes, MP Amer Abduljabbar with six votes, and MP Talal Al-Zobaie with one vote.

However, due to verbal altercations inside the council hall, the session was adjourned without completing the election process, and no other session has been held since.

On the next day, January 14, MPs Yousif Al-Kilaby and Faleh Hassan Al-Khazali filed a lawsuit with the Federal Supreme Court, seeking a provisional injunction to halt the election session until the resolution of their lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges bribery of some MPs to vote for specific candidates for the council's presidency.

The Federal Integrity Commission (CoI) announced on January 17 that it had initiated investigations into these allegations.

Furthermore, acting Parliament Speaker Mohsen al-Mandalawi formed a parliamentary investigation committee on January 23 to probe the allegations of bribery and financial inducements related to the election session.