MB Candidate Declared New Head of Iraqi Parliament

MB Candidate Declared New Head of Iraqi Parliament

Iraqi Islamic Party (MB in Iraq) and Iraqi Concordance Front announced the victory of Eyad El-Samirrai (Iraqi Islamic Party Candidate) as Head of the Iraqi Council of Representatives and successor of El-Mashhadany.


Islamic Party spokesperson Selim El-Jabury affirmed in press statements that the interpretation of the phrase “absolute majority” according to the Supreme Unionist Court in its book issued on 22/10/2007 is “the majority of attendees in the session after the legal quorum has been attained.”


“Therefore, Eyad El-Samirrai is Head of the Iraqi Parliament for receiving 136 votes from among the 237 representatives who had attended the session which is more than the required absolute majority by 17 votes,” El-Jabury explained pointing out that El-Samurai will begin work starting from the next session the Council will hold according to the parliament”s internal system which states in Article 12 paragraph 3 that, “if the posts of the Parliament Head or any of his deputies are vacant for any reason, the Council should elect, by absolute majority, successors for them in the first session it holds to fill the vacancy according to the political guidelines and balances between the blocs.”


As for the question on the extent of needing 138 votes to win according to article 55 of the constitution which talks about the “absolute majority of Council members,” Iraqi Parliament Legal Committee Vice-Chair answers that the Supreme Unionist Court had denied in its last decision issued on 5/2/2009 the correspondence of this article with the existing case.  The court”s decision cited:


 “based on an examination of article 55, the court sees that its ruling is limited to the Representatives Council election period from its beginning until election results are announced and parliament members are invited to meet by Republic Ordinance.  This is since it follows directly article 54 of the constitution which talks about calling on a Representatives Council meeting after approving election results, then the first session is held headed by the oldest parliament member to elect a new head for the council and his deputies.


The Supreme Unionist Court sees that there is no clause in the constitution of the Republic of Iraq that deals with the way in which the new head for the Iraqi Council of Representatives or his deputies should be elected throughout the election period if any of the positions become vacant.


The Supreme Unionist Court sees that paragraph 3 of Article 12 (cited above) of the Council”s internal system deals with this issue.”