BAGHDAD —
Iraq's parliament on Monday indefinitely postponed a scheduled vote for the republic's
president after most major political blocs boycotted the session.
اضافة اعلان
The sweeping no-show deepens a political crisis
in the war-scarred country which, almost four months after a general election,
still hasn't chosen a new prime minister.
The assembly vote had been set for noon for
the head of state — a post with a four-year mandate held by convention by a
member of Iraq's Kurdish minority, and currently occupied by
Barham Saleh.
But a series of boycott calls had made it
highly unlikely the 329-seat parliament in Baghdad's high-security
Green Zone would be able to clinch the necessary two-thirds quorum.
Then, on Monday afternoon, with only a few
dozen MPs in the chamber, an official speaking on condition of anonymity
confirmed to AFP that "there will be no vote to elect the president".
The turmoil comes after October polls were
marred by record-low turnout, post-election threats and violence, and a delay
of several months until final results were confirmed.
Intense negotiations among political groups
since then have failed to form a majority parliamentary coalition to name a new
prime minister to succeed
Mustafa Al-Kadhemi.
The largest parliamentary bloc to emerge
from the vote, led by powerful Shiite Muslim cleric
Moqtada Sadr and holding 73
seats, was first to announce a boycott, on Saturday.
It was followed on Sunday by the 51-member
Sovereignty Coalition led by a Sadr ally, parliamentary Speaker Mohammed Al-Halbussi.
The 31-seat
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)
then announced it would also stay away, in order to "continue
consultations and dialogue between political blocs".
Another key bloc, the Cooperation Framework
grouping several Shiite parties, also said the session should not take place,
citing the recent political turmoil.
Corruption claims
The process toward a presidential vote had
been further thrown into disarray when
Iraq's Supreme Court on Sunday suspended
the candidacy of Saleh's key challenger, Hoshyar Zebari, 68.
The court cited corruption charges against
Zebari, a former foreign minister from the KDP — allegations he denies.
"I have not been convicted in any
court," Zebari had said in a television interview on Friday as the charges
resurfaced alongside forecasts he would unseat Saleh.
Incumbent Saleh, the other frontrunner out
of some 25 candidates, represents the KDP's main rival in Iraqi Kurdistan, the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
The Supreme Court said it was suspending
Zebari after receiving a complaint from lawmakers that his candidacy was
"unconstitutional" because of the graft claims.
The complainants cited his 2016 dismissal
from the post of finance minister by parliament "over charges linked to
financial and administrative corruption".
The complaint also cited at least two other
judicial cases linked to him, including when he was Iraq's long-time foreign
minister after the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein in the 2003 US-led invasion.
'Share the pie'
Monday's postponement exacerbates Iraq's
political troubles because it is the task of the president, within 15 days of
being elected, to formally name a prime minister from the largest bloc in
parliament.
The prime minister, a
Shiite Muslim according
to political tradition, then has a month to form his government.
Sadr's bloc claims it controls enough seats
for a "national majority government".
However, the Coordination Framework has
appealed to the Supreme Court to have their grouping recognized as the biggest.
The country's apex court has rejected this
demand, saying it could not decide now, as the size of parliamentary blocs
could shift.
In Iraqi politics, said analyst Hamzeh
Hadad, "everyone knows how to share the pie" but "no one knows how
to be in the opposition".
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