Federal Court decides to abolish the Iraq Parliament’s open session

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Iraq’s Federal Court has decided on Sunday to abolish the open session of the Iraqi Parliament and to resume the Parliament’s normal sessions, according to an urgent report by the semi-official Al-Iraqiya TV Channel. The Parliament had failed to hold any session since the general elections that took place on March 7, 2010, but for an open session on June 14, 2010, that was concentrated on reading the legal oath by some Parliament members, and had stopped the works of the session till an unknown date, pending the agreement by different political blocs to distribute the leading State poisons among them. The Iraqi Constitution includes an article regarding the holding of the Parliament’s first session to elect the Parliament’s Speaker, his two deputies by the majority voting by a number of Parliament members, through direct voting and then the election of a new President of the Republic, provided the latter would assign the leader of the largest parliamentary bloc to form the government, according to Article 76 of the Constitution. The Iraqi political arena had witnessed every-increasing differences since the announcement of the reults of the nationwide elections that took place on March 7th last, that escalated between the two main blocs that won the largest number of seats in the new parliament, al-Iraqiya bloc, led by former Prime Minister, Iyad Allawi and outgoing Prime Minister and leader of State of Law bloc, Nouri al-Maliki, with the first that got 91 out of the parliament‘s 325-seats and the latter that got 89 seats. The Sate of Law, that formed a coalition with other blocs to achieve the largest bloc in the new parliament, had demanded the formation of the new government, whilst Al-Iraqiya refused the claim, saying that it had gained the largest number of seats in the said elections, and thus it had the right to form government. SKH 1