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| Iraq |
| Iraq parliament fails to elect new speaker |
| 2009-02-09 |
| BAGHDAD - Iraq’s parliament remained deadlocked on the election of a new speaker on Sunday, just two days after US Vice President Joe Biden said Iraq needed to push ahead with political reform. The failure is a blow to the fledgling democracy which without a speaker cannot debate or approve a new budget and oil laws deemed crucial to the reconstruction of the country. There are five candidates vying for the post, but rival Sunni politicians cannot agree on who should get the job. “A group of parties left the hall today and there were not enough MPs to choose a new speaker,” said Jamal al-Butikh, chief of the National Iraqi List, the parliamentary group headed by former prime minister Iyad Allawi. Outspoken Mahmud Mashhadani quit as speaker on December 23, triggering political wrangling over a replacement. He resigned after Kurdish and Shiite MPs clamoured for him to go because he had described some lawmakers as “sons of dogs” in fierce debates about the Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at former US president George W. Bush. Butikh said MPs would reconvene on Monday to try and break the impasse. Under Iraq’s complex political rules, Sunni Arabs have the right to nominate the speaker but bitter infighting in the largest Sunnni Arab bloc, the National Concord Front, has seen them unable to agree on the best candidate. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 This IS how free politics works. Messy. But I think they'll come up with something. Something nobody likes, but that just enough can tolerate for it to be approved. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2009-02-09 08:45 |