Iraqi Parliament fails to elect president for third time

In less than two months, the Iraqi parliament met three times to elect a president but was unsuccessful, as the quorum was not reached.

According to the parliamentary press service, the next session for the election of the president has been postponed until further notice.

The new date has not been announced. However, the Federal Court, Iraq’s highest judicial body, said that the new elections should be on 6 April. If the next vote is unsuccessful, it is difficult to predict what could happen, as there is no roadmap in the Constitution on this issue.

The Shiite coalition boycotted the 7 February and 26 March sessions. Only 178 out of 329 deputies attended the last session. This does not constitute a two-thirds majority.

There are 40 candidates running for the presidency. However, only two of them have a chance to be elected: Berham Salih from the PUK, who has been holding the presidency since 2018, and Rêbar Ahmed from the KDP. Either of them must have a two-thirds majority to be elected president. The presidency, traditionally given to the Kurds, plays a rather honorary role.