SpaceWar.com - Your World At War
New Iraq parliament to open on January 9
Baghdad, Dec 30 (AFP) Dec 30, 2021
Iraq's parliament will open on January 9 for its first session since lawmakers were elected in an October vote won by Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, President Barham Saleh said Thursday.

In multi-confessional and multi-ethnic Iraq, the formation of governments has involved complex negotiations ever since the 2003 US-led invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, and the inauguration of parliament will come almost three months on since the October 10 vote.

"I signed the presidential decree inviting the new parliament to meet on January 9," Saleh said in a statement, adding his "hope for a genuinely strong and active government... protecting and serving" the Iraqi people.

"This requires the cooperation (of all) to carry out the reforms necessary for a stable and prosperous Iraq," Saleh added.

The oldest of the 329 lawmakers will chair the first session, with parliament given 30 days to elect a president, who will then name a prime minister -- tasked with forming a new government within 30 days.

Some experts and politicians hope for a new government by March.

Sadr's movement won more than a fifth of the seats, 73 out of the assembly's total of 329.

The Fatah Alliance, the political arm of the pro-Tehran Hashed al-Shaabi former paramilitary alliance, took 17 seats, sharply down from its 48 seats in the past assembly, and Hashed leaders rejected the result.

Former premier Nuri al-Maliki's pro-Iran State of Law Alliance won 33 seats in the legislature.

Iraq is trying to recover from years of war and jihadist violence but remains hobbled by political divisions, corruption and poverty.

Parties from Iraq's Shiite majority have previously struck compromise deals to work together, but Sadr is insistent he wants to forge a coalition capable of forming a parliamentary majority.

Sadr, a political maverick and former anti-US militia leader who opposes all foreign interference, met with rivals from the Hashed al-Shaabi on Wednesday.


ADVERTISEMENT




Space News from SpaceDaily.com
Mars glaciers are purer and more uniform than previously thought
Curiosity Rovers Boxwork Campaign Reaches New Heights on Mount Sharp
Skyfall Mars helicopter fleet to scout future astronaut landing sites

24/7 Energy News Coverage
MicroCarb satellite launches to map global carbon dioxide emissions from space
Chemistry breakthroughs open new frontiers in industrial carbon capture
Rollable solar array by GalaxySpace redefines satellite compactness and power efficiency

Military Space News, Nuclear Weapons, Missile Defense
BlackSky to supply satellite imagery and analytics for Latin American security operations
GovSat selects Thales Alenia Space to build secure satellite for military communications
SES and Luxembourg to expand military satcom with next generation GovSat2

24/7 News Coverage
One billion years of protein evolution reveals surprising design flexibility
MetOp Second Generation satellite fully fuelled ahead of August launch
We tracked illegal fishing in marine protected areas - satellites and AI show most bans are respected, and could help enforce future ones



All rights reserved. Copyright Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.