ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Political divisions between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have resurfaced ahead of a crucial Iraqi parliamentary session to elect the country’s president on Saturday, with both sides offering conflicting assessments of whether the required quorum will be met.
Harem Kamal Agha, head of the PUK bloc in the Iraqi Parliament, expressed confidence that the session would proceed as planned.
"The attendance quorum required to hold the Iraqi parliamentary session for the election of the President of Iraq will be met,” he told Rudaw.
Under the Iraqi Constitution, at least 220 lawmakers must be present out of the 329-member parliament to hold a valid session.
Iraq held legislative elections in early November. In late December, parliament elected its speaker and two deputies. Under Iraq’s constitution, lawmakers must elect a president within 30 days of forming parliamentary leadership, in a session requiring a two-thirds quorum - 220 out of 329 members - to convene.
Under Iraq’s informal power-sharing system, the presidency is allocated to the Kurds, the parliamentary speakership to Sunni Arabs, and the premiership to Shiite parties.
However, the disagreements between the KDP and the PUK over the position of the President have stalled the formation of the government. The parties have both nominated candidates for the position, and their failure to agree on a single joint nominee has reportedly resulted in a political deadlock.
After a president is elected - either by a two-thirds majority in the first round or a simple majority in a runoff - the president must, within 15 days of being sworn in, task the prime minister nominee from the largest parliamentary bloc with forming a government.
The constitutional deadline to elect a president has already passed, as the two main Kurdish parties, the KDP and PUK, have yet to agree on a joint candidate. The PUK has nominated Nizar Amedi, while the KDP has nominated Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein.
"During the session, Nizar Amedi, the PUK candidate, will be elected as the President of Iraq,” Kamal Agha said.
He also downplayed the impact of boycotts, noting: "So far, only the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the State of Law Coalition have officially announced that they will not participate in today's parliamentary session."
However, Sherwan Dubardani, a lawmaker from the KDP bloc, disputed this claim and predicted the session would fail due to insufficient attendance.
"The attendance quorum will not be achieved. The KDP, State of Law, parts of the Sunnis such as Azm and Siyada, and other Shiite parties - such as the Basic Iraq Alliance led by Mohsen al-Mandalawi - as well as some of the quota seat holders, will not participate in the meeting,” Dubardani said.
Dubardani also questioned the legality of the session, arguing: "the Iraqi parliamentary session is fundamentally illegal because, according to Article 37 of the Parliament’s internal rules, the speaker and both deputy speakers must approve the session’s agenda.
However, Farhad Atroushi, the Deputy Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, did not give his approval, and the agenda was set without his consent."
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