Parl. postpones speakership debate to Mon. session

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi parliament postponed till Monday a session to debate the issue of the speaker post after several blocs withdrew for failing to reach an agreement. “Today’s session was postponed to Monday after six parliamentary blocs withdrew, rendering the quorum unobserved,” the IraqiNews.com news agency correspondent said. “The withdrawal occurred before voting over candidates for the speaker post,” he added, noting the six blocs that withdrew were the Dawa Party – Iraq Organization, the Dawa Party of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, Khalaf al-Alyan’s National Dialogue Council (NDC), Saleh al-Motlak’s National Dialogue Front (NDF), the Islamic Fadhila (Virtue) Party and the Sadrist Bloc, or Iraqis loyal to Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr. Five candidates are vying over the speaker post: Iyad al-Samarraie of the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), independent lawmaker Wathab al-Dulaimi, NDC lawmaker Khalil Jaddou, Abad Motlak al-Juburi of the Independent Arab Bloc and independent legislator Hussein al-Falluji. The Iraqi parliament is still without a speaker since former speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani’s resignation was accepted in an extraordinary session held on December 23, 2008 after a squabble between him and members from the security & defense and legal committees and some words he said which were considered “insulting”. AmR (P) 1