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| Iraq |
| Iraqi lawmakers end impasse by electing speaker |
| 2009-04-20 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Iyad al-Samarrai, a Muslim Brotherhood member and strong critic of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, was elected as Iraq's parliament speaker Sunday after the post was left vacant for nearly four months. "We need a process of reform in parliament," Samarrai told reporters after the vote as he vowed to work with rival political blocs to advance legislation in the 275-member assembly and strengthen its oversight capacity. He also said he would focus on trying to pass an oil and gas law to speed up the development of Iraq's vast petroleum resources, legislation that has been stalled for years amid disputes between Iraq's Arab and Kurdish blocs. Muslim Brotherhood member Samarrai, who heads the parliamentary delegation of the National Concord Front, Iraq's largest Sunni Arab bloc, was elected by a majority of 153 votes to the office which is reserved for a Sunni. A total of 232 MPs participated in the secret ballot, with Samarrai's sole opponent Mustafa al-Hiti winning 34 votes and 45 MPs casting blank ballots, according to a parliamentary official. Lawmakers were trying to fill the post for the past four months, but no candidate managed to secure the required majority of 138 votes, including Samarrai, who fell just two votes short in a vote in February. Samarrai belongs to the Islamic Party, the Iraqi branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist movement founded in Egypt in 1928 with members and offshoots across the Muslim world. The Islamic Party was accused of having close ties to the Sunni insurgency in the years after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and some of its members were detained and had their offices raided by U.S. and Iraqi forces. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 "Muslim Brotherhood member". oh good |
| Posted by: Gerthudion Slavick7271 2009-04-20 12:33 |