Coordination Framework: Iraq PM decision tied to presidency talks

Shafaq News– Baghdad

Iraq’s Shiite Coordination Framework (CF), parliament’s largest bloc, is not deadlocked over naming the next prime minister and will announce its nominee once Kurdish parties settle the presidency, a senior CF figure revealed on Sunday.

The nomination will come on the same day parliament elects the president, Hassan Fadam of Ammar Al-Hakim’s Al-Hikma (Wisdom) Movement told Shafaq News, in line with Iraq’s post-2003 power-sharing system under which Kurds choose the president, Shiite forces nominate the prime minister, and Sunnis select the parliamentary speaker.

The outcome, State of Law Coalition member Zuhair Al-Jalabi told our agency, is expected to be shaped by the composition of the new parliament, with lawmakers linked to armed factions now holding seats.

Caretaker Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani and former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki are among nine candidates under consideration. If neither secures broad consensus, the bloc will move toward an alternative candidate acceptable to all its components, according to CF member Abdul Rahman Al-Jalabi.

Meanwhile, Kurdish parties continue consultations over the presidency, sources have told our agency. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) held separate meetings on Friday, with the PUK considering Nizar Amedi and Khalid Shwani, and the KDP weighing Interior Minister Rebar Ahmed and Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein.

Read more: Iraq begins 90-day countdown to form government as political fault lines re-emerge