ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s prominent Shiite cleric and politician Ammar al-Hakim on Saturday called for continuing Iraq’s government formation despite the ongoing regional war, urging political blocs to fulfill constitutional obligations without postponement.
“I am surprised that Iran, which is in the midst of war, did not wait and elected a new leader, so why must Iraq wait for the war to end? Expediting the completion of constitutional obligations is a national duty and should not be postponed,” said Hakim, head of the National Wisdom Movement.
Iraq’s political blocs continue negotiations to form a new government. Parliament has set April 11 as the date for a session to elect the country’s next president, amid ongoing political deadlock following elections held in November. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on February 28 during US-Israeli strikes that marked the start of the ongoing war. His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, was appointed the country’s third supreme leader on March 8.
Hakim’s remarks came during the annual Baghdad Diwan gathering organized by his movement on Saturday under the theme "The Regional War and Its Repercussions on Iraq."
Under Iraq’s informal power-sharing system, the speakership is allocated to Sunni Arabs, the premiership to Shiite parties, and the presidency to the Kurds. While the speaker and his two deputies have been selected, officials from both the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) told Rudaw in recent days that the two sides have not yet agreed on a joint candidate and that there are currently no negotiations between them on the matter.
"We asked the Kurdish parties to agree on a single joint candidate for the presidency. If they cannot agree, they may enter parliament with two candidates, and whoever receives the majority of votes becomes president,” Hakim told Rudaw.
Hakim, who ran in Iraq's parliamentary elections as head of the Alliance of National State Forces (ANSF) alongside former prime minister Haider al-Abadi, won 18 seats.
Under Iraq’s constitution, the president must be elected within 30 days of the first parliamentary session. Once sworn in, the president has up to 15 days to task the nominee of the largest parliamentary bloc with forming a government.
The Shiite Coordination Framework, the largest bloc in parliament, formally nominated former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki in late January. Since then, Washington has increased pressure on Iraq, with US President Donald Trump publicly warning against Maliki’s return.
Hakim said that within the Coordination Framework, they agreed their lawmakers would be free to vote for any candidate, without being compelled to support a specific presidential nominee.
Ziyad Ismail contributed to this article.
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