Monday, June 14th 2010Members of new Iraqi Parliament sworn in today - Analysis
Baghdad, The members of the new parliament were sworn in today in the first parliamentary session, with the presence of the outgoing Prime Minister, nuri Al-Maliki and deputies of the Republic's President and ministers in the current government.
"According to Article 50 of the Iraqi Constitution, the members cannot attend the parliamentary sessions if they weren't sorn in," the Chairman of the Parliament Fuad Masum said during the opening of the session.
"After the agreement of the political blocs, the Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and deputies of the Republic President and the ministers in the current government didn't sworn and waited until the formation of the government," Masum said.
"The will of the Iraqi people embodied today through the insistance on facing all challenges, so we are required to compensate all the delays that occured," he said.
The members were sworn in, in both Arabic and Kurdish languages.
"Article 55 of the Iraqi constitution stresses on the need to elect a new Speaker for the Parliament and his two deputies, but the political blocs agreed this morning to postpone the issue to the next few days, so the meeting will stay opened," Masum added.
The first session was supposed to be opened and chaired by the oldest member, who belongs to al-Iraqiya list, Hassan Al-Alawi, but he apologized yesterday from heading the session thus prompting the member of Kurdistan Alliance, Fuad Masum, to head the session as he is the second oldest member in the new Parliament.
The session began at 11 a.m. local time with the participation of the outgoing Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, head of al-Iraqiya list Iyad Allawi, the President of the Supreme Islamic Council Ammar al-Hakim, the former Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Vice-Presidents, Adel Abdul Mahdi and Tarek al-Hashimi, the American ambassador to Baghdad, and a number of ambassadors from Arab and foreign countries.
"Electing the Prime Minister is not the primary mission today, the Parliament is concerned to select the Speaker," Masum pointed out.
"The Parliament is not allowed to take decisions in the first session, but to elect the Speaker of the parliament," noting that "the meeting was opened to allow the political blocs to negotiate about this issue," he said, adding that the decision of the largest bloc goes back to the Federal Court.
According to the Iraqi Constitution, the new members of the parliament can't be sworn in if they didn't lave their previous posts.
Also, according to the Iraqi Constitution, the Iraqi President Jalal Talabani can call for convening the first session of the new parliament within 15 days after the court ratifies on the results, then the members have 15 days to elect a speaker for the parliament and 30 days to elect a new president.
IHEC announced that Al-Iraqiya List came first by obtaining 91 seats, State of Law came second by winning 89 seats, and National Alliance came third with 70 seats, while the Kurdistan Alliance won the fourth place with 43 seats out of the 325-seats of the new Iraqi Parliament, in the nationwide elections that took place on March 7 last.
Rn/SH (AKnews)
