Iraqi parliament to elect new President on March 26

Baghdad : Iraq’s parliament said that it will hold a session to elect the new President on March 26.

It “was decided to set Saturday, March 26, as the date for the Council of Representatives (parliament) session to elect the President of the Republic,” said a brief statement issued on Tuesday by the media office of Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi, Xinhua news agency reported.

Earlier, the parliament announced the names of 40 candidates for the presidential election, including President Barham Salih, who represents the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Kurdistan Interior Minister Rebar Ahmed Khalid, who is running for the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and Rizgar Mohammed Amin, former chief judge of the Iraqi Special Tribunal that organised the trial of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

The list also includes non-Kurdish candidates, though the power-sharing system in Iraq after 2003 stipulates that the Presidency should be reserved for the Kurds, the Speaker’s post for the Sunnis, and the Prime Minister’s post for the Shias.

Under the Iraqi constitution, lawmakers should elect a new Iraqi President from the candidates by a two-thirds majority of the 329-seat parliament, and the President is limited to serving two four-year terms.

Once elected, the new President will ask the largest parliamentary bloc to name a Prime Minister-designate to form a government within 30 days.

–IANS