Iraq: conflicting expectations regarding today’s extraordinary parliament session
Iraq: conflicting expectations regarding today’s extraordinary parliament session
6-23-2022
While the 73 substitute deputies who replaced the Sadrist bloc’s independent deputies arrived in Baghdad, with the aim of taking the legal oath, today, Thursday, conflicting expectations regarding the possibility of completing a quorum for the extraordinary session are still the master of the situation. The session that Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi was forced to announce despite the parliament’s legislative recess, which ends on the tenth of next July, was aimed, according to the signatures collected by about 50 deputies, to discuss Turkish threats to Iraqi lands. But as soon as the date of the session was announced today, Thursday, the talk moved about taking the oath to the alternate deputies and initiating negotiations to form the next government, without reference, either from near or from afar, to the Turkish threats for which signatures were collected. Even the Presidency of Parliament did not specify an agenda for the session, due to conflicting positions on it in terms of:
While the Shiite “coordinating framework” turns into a large parliamentary bloc when the vast majority of alternative representatives join it, and thus becomes the most numerous parliamentary bloc that nominates from among its members the head of the next government, Sadr’s two allies: the Sunni “sovereignty” coalition led by Muhammad al-Halbousi, Speaker of Parliament And the Kurdistan Democratic Party, led by Masoud Barzani, has not yet decided whether to attend the session or not, or to move in the direction of alliances from the Sadr compound to the compound of his opponents, the forces of the “coordinating framework.”
According to what is now announced by both the Sunni and Kurdish alliances, the “Save a Homeland” alliance consisting of the “Sadr bloc”, the “Sovereignty” and the “Kurdish Democratic Party” is still in existence despite al-Sadr’s withdrawal.
And that the announcement of the survival of this alliance in existence is just a maneuver, and thus a negotiating paper in the hands of the two parties, or that what is meant is the survival of this alliance at the political level, not the parliament, either of the two possibilities would make the task of the “coordinating framework” forces complicated regarding the formation of the next government.
The “coordinating framework”, even after large numbers of alternative representatives joined its ranks, as well as betting on the 40 independent representatives, does not have the two-thirds majority needed to elect a president of the republic, which is the knot that has been going on for 8 months until today. In addition, according to what one of the independent MPs told Asharq Al-Awsat, on condition that his name not be mentioned, “the problem of (the coordination framework) is that it does not view us as independent MPs as a bloc that has its own vision, program and plans for how to build the state; Rather, he looks at us as one color with them (indicating that the independent representatives are mostly from the Shiite component), and he looks at us as a number he wants to add to his balance.” This representative adds that “this is not acceptable to us; Because we have previously put forward an initiative that has received attention from various parliamentary and political circles, to the extent that we have been relied upon to form the government, and that we are not just an egg; He even suggested that we nominate the next prime minister,” noting that “everything differed after the withdrawal of the Sadrists, and we are facing a new scene regarding the possible future results, regarding the method of negotiation between us and the rest of the political blocs, regarding the mechanism by which the government should be formed. coming under; Because we look at the suffering of the people that brought us to Parliament, and we do not want to let them down, regardless of the gains we can get.”
Kurdish and Sunni, a dispute emerges within both the Kurdish and Sunni houses, which the forces of the “coordinating framework” are seeking to invest in their favour, and thus push with all force to complete the quorum of today’s session; Because this would make it move on solid ground with the Kurds and Sunnis, after its balance rose with the rise of the new deputies to about 120 Shiite deputies, with the exception of the forty independent deputies, which raises the number if they agree with them to 160 deputies.
Although the session needs 5 new deputies to complete its quorum, the bet turns to the two allies of the “coordinating framework” of the Kurds (the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which number 18, and the Sunni “Azm” alliance led by Muthanna al-Samarrai, who number 11). While the quorum of the session is complete if these two alliances enter the parliament, the “coordinating framework” keeps its eye on the two allies of al-Sadr (Al-Halbousi and Barzani), who could obstruct the framework’s plans in proceeding with the procedures for forming the government, starting with the election of the president of the republic. As for Barzani and Al-Halbousi, if they remain in a position between disembarking from the “Tyre” ship and joining the “Frame” ship, they will remain guarantors for the continuation of their moral stance towards the leader of the “Tyre”, and perhaps they will obtain more gains from the forces of the “Frame.”
rawabetcenter.com
