Iraq presidential vote delayed as Kurdish blocs wrestle to choose candidate | Elections Information

Whoever is nominated from the 2 Kurdish events nonetheless wants the approval from the Shia and Sunni blocs within the parliament.

Iraq’s parliament has postponed the election for the nation’s subsequent president to permit for extra consultations between the 2 Kurdish events to agree on a candidate.

The Iraqi Information Company (INA) mentioned the parliamentary vote scheduled for Tuesday was delayed on the request of the Kurdistan Democratic Celebration (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

Iraq follows a sectarian quota system, in line with which the put up of the prime minister goes to a Shia, the parliament’s speaker is a Sunni, and the largely ceremonial presidency goes to a Kurd.

Often, in an settlement between the 2 principal Kurdish events, a PUK member holds the presidency. In distinction, the president and regional chief of the semi-autonomous Kurdish area are chosen from the KDP.

Nonetheless, on this occasion, the KDP introduced its personal candidate, Overseas Minister Fuad Hussein, for the election.

Reporting from the capital, Baghdad, Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud Abdelwahed mentioned whoever is nominated from the 2 Kurdish events nonetheless wants the approval from the Shia and Sunni blocs within the parliament.

After the election, the brand new president may have 15 days to nominate a chief minister, who’s extensively anticipated to be the previous chief, Nouri al-Maliki.

Al-Maliki, 75, has already served as Iraq’s prime minister for 2 phrases from 2006 to 2014 earlier than he stop underneath stress from america. He’s seen as being near Iran.

On Saturday, the Coordination Framework, an alliance of Shia events which holds a parliamentary majority, endorsed Maliki. The following day, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned towards a pro-Iranian authorities in Iraq.

An Iraqi supply near the Coordination Framework advised the AFP information company that Washington had conveyed to it that it “holds a destructive view of earlier governments led by former Prime Minister Maliki”.

In a letter, US representatives mentioned that whereas the number of the prime minister is an Iraqi resolution, “america will make its personal sovereign choices relating to the following authorities in keeping with American pursuits”.

One other Iraqi supply confirmed the letter, including that the Shia alliance had nonetheless moved ahead with its alternative, assured that Maliki might allay Washington’s considerations.

Iraq has lengthy been a proxy battleground between the US and Iran, with successive governments negotiating a fragile steadiness between the 2 foes.