Negotiations on new parliament speaker ongoing

Parliament is scheduled to meet tomorrow to vote on a new speaker to replace Mohammed Al-Halbusi. With no sign of consensus on a single candidate among the Sunni parties, it is expected that several MPs will contest the vote.

Halbusi was officially stripped of his seat yesterday following last week’s Federal Supreme Court ruling. A directive signed on Monday by Deputy Speaker Muhsin Al-Mandalawi confirmed that Halbusi was no longer an MP.

Iraq’s electoral body is now required to determine who will take Halbusi’s vacant seat. As per the electoral law, the seat will go to the highest placed loser in Halbusi’s electoral district. Eisa Al-Eisawi, who came fifth in Anbar District 1 with 5,000 votes is expected to take the seat. Eisawi won far less than the nearly 37,000 Halbusi votes, and ironically, Eisawi was a former mayor of Fallujah who was unceremoniously removed from office by Halbusi. He ran in the 2021 elections with the rival Azm coalition.