Iraq will begin accepting presidential candidacy applications as early as Wednesday, according to a parliamentary statement. Parliament Speaker Mohamed al-Halbousi announced in a statement that nominations would be accepted for a period of three days.
Iraqi MPs were unable to elect a new president on Monday because of a boycott by political groupings, leading to a lack of quorum. The deadline for submitting a petition to run for president has passed.
The parliament must elect the president within 30 days of their first session following their election, according to the constitution. Since Parliament convened for the first time on January 9, the grace period has expired. Delaying the session to elect a new president was necessitated by 58 out of 329 legislators attending Monday’s session, a parliamentary source expressed.
The country’s current president, Barham Salih, was one of 25 candidates competing for the presidency. On Tuesday, Al-Halbousi explained that the decision was made because “the constitutional period allocated for electing the president of our country has expired.”
Since 2006, a Kurd has been elected president of Iraq, while a Sunni oversees the country’s parliament, and a Shia oversees the country’s government. Hoshyar Zebari, a Kurdish politician running for the presidency of Iraq, was suspended by Iraq’s Supreme Federal Court on Sunday after MPs submitted complaints regarding bribery allegations against him.
