Al-Maliki: An “emergency” order thwarted the resolution of the Parliament presidency file

The presidency of the State of Law Coalition, Nouri al-Maliki, stated that an “emergency” had foiled the resolution of the parliament presidency file on Monday, while denying any talk about the Shiite component trying to realize control over the position.

Al-Maliki added in statements followed by Shafaq News Agency, “The issue of the presidency of the House of Representatives is a crisis that must be highlighted because it interacted and developed as a result of differences in the points of view.”

He explained that “the legislative, executive, and judicial institutions are the basis for the process of building a state with a democratic system,” noting that “the stability of the legislative authority and its work according to partnership stipulates support and backing for the executive and judiciary authorities.”

Al-Maliki reiterated the necessity of having a stable legislative power with a fully authorized presidency and representatives to run this great institution, underscoring that the Coordination Framework was determined to complete the political process of selecting the Speaker of the House of Representatives. For this reason, it had taken several initiatives to find a consensus among the Sunni forces.

He explained that “the dialogues between the Sunni parties and the Coordination Framework were positive, but an urgent matter prevented the resolution of the Parliament presidency issue.”.

The political forces have failed to elect a speaker for a new parliament since November 2023, when the membership of Mohammed al-Halbousi was ended due to disagreements, while the Coordination Framework put July 20 for resolving the Sunni disagreements over this file, which did not stick to the date.

It is worth mentioning here that last Monday, the State of Law Coalition was actually expecting that Mohsen al-Mandalawi would remain as Speaker of the Iraqi Council of Representatives until the end of the current fifth session of the Parliament.

According to Saad Al-Mutalibi, the coalition leader, “The differences between the Sunni political forces are still there and have no solutions in sight, especially with the file of electing the Parliament Speaker that can’t be resolved without an agreement between Mohammed Al-Halbousi and Khamis Al-Khanjar, and until now, there is no agreement between them.”.