Iraq's parliament speaker deadlock overshadows provincial elections

With Iraq's provincial elections kicking off on Monday, time has run out for the Iraqi parliament to elect a new speaker of the house. The country is now at the risk of a constitutional crisis as deep divisions along political and ethnic lines continue to paralyse its top institutions following an inconclusive general election in 2022.

Speaking to The New Arab by telephone from Baghdad, Iraq's ex-parliament speaker, Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani, confirmed the issue of choosing a new speaker will be delayed until after the provincial elections but insisted he had a “good chance” of winning the position.

Iraq is set to hold provincial elections on Monday in 14 provinces, excluding the provinces in the northern Kurdistan region. The local elections could reflect a new balance of power that can help break the deadlock or renew the state of paralysis.

On Wednesday, the Iraqi parliament failed again to elect a new speaker for the second time since November.

Mashhadani claimed this was due to lawmakers being preoccupied with campaigning and 'personal' matters.

“The issue is very simple: We tried to hold an extraordinary session of the parliament at an improper time,” Mashhadani said.

“When the lawmakers are on their legislative vacation, they are busy with their affairs, including going abroad for medical checks, and most of the MPs are busy with campaigning for the provincial elections.”

Several Iraqi politicians and observers have written on the X platform that the race will be between Iraq's former parliament speaker, Mahmoud Al-Mashhadani, and Iraqi Sunni politician Salem al-Issawi.👇https://t.co/5UyE5BWk54

— The New Arab (@The_NewArab) December 13, 2023

He also admitted that another reason for postponing Wednesday’s session was that it was “difficult to get a necessary quorum of 200 PMs inside the parliament to provide a chance of competition among the candidates for the assembly’s speaker post. 

There are deep divisions within the Sunni blocs who cannot agree on a single candidate and filibustering by the dominant Shia bloc pushing for Mashhadani's candidacy.

Iraq has an ethnic and sectarian power-sharing system where the speaker of parliament is usually a Sunni Arab. At the same time, the prime minister must be a Shia Arab, and the president must be Kurdish.

Iraq's top court on 14 November revoked the parliamentary membership of Iraq's parliament former speaker, Mohammed al-Halbousi, on charges of forgery. On 22 November, the Iraqi parliament postponed another vote to elect a new speaker.

Mashhadani,74, had served as the speaker of the Iraqi Parliament from 2006 to 2009. 

Mashhadani enjoys strong relations with Iraq's powerful Shia politician and ex-prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, who has close ties with Iran. 

On 9 January 2022, Mashhadani chaired the first session of the parliament as the most elderly lawmaker. Still, the session descended into chaos after he fell ill and was taken to hospital.

The Coordination Framework (CF), an alliance of Iran-backed Shia blocs and political sides that has a majority in the parliament, particularly Nouri Al-Maliki's State of Law Coalition, insists on nominating Mashhadani, thus creating a deadlock in reaching an agreement with the Sunni blocs," close sources recently told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, TNA's sister website in Arabic.