Iraq’s New Parliament to Convene, Start Choosing Key Leaders

Local Editor

Iraq's newly elected parliament will take a critical first step Tuesday to forge a new leadership that will try to stem the conflict threatening the country with disintegration.

Legislators convene for the first time to choose a parliament speaker, which will launch a constitutional timetable that is supposed to lead to selecting a prime minister within 45 days.

Two-term Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had been almost certain to secure a third, four-year term.
"Maliki will definitely be replaced," said a senior official who is close to the prime minister. "But nothing in Iraq is easy."

With Mr. Maliki already resisting efforts to oust him, Iraqis can expect a lengthy political fight in Baghdad to match the violent conflict unfolding in the country's west and north.

Maliki's post, however, won't be an official agenda item in the first parliament session on Tuesday. According to the constitution's rigid timetable for selecting a new government, members of parliament are obliged to pick a new speaker during the opening session.

Failure to choose a speaker on the first day could derail the process even before it begins. Yet by Monday evening, many of Iraq's politicians were still trying to cajole reluctant political blocs to even attend the session that could offer the last hope for national unity. "A lot is riding on tomorrow," said Zaid al Ali, a constitutional expert and author of the recently published book "The Struggle for Iraq's Future."

"If they can't come up with a speaker tomorrow, that means they will have already violated the constitution and the constitutional timetable will start slipping."

The assembly must choose a president within 30 days of electing a speaker of parliament. Within 15 days of the president's selection, parliament's largest bloc must then nominate a new prime minister.

The last time Iraq formed a government, it took nearly 10 months following elections in 2010. Since then, a verdict from the high constitutional court effectively banned the practice of keeping parliament sessions open-ended-a legal sleight of hand that allowed negotiations to drag on for many months.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team