By Mariam Karouny
Reuters, 23 January 2006
BAGHDAD - Iraq's parliament will ignore a constitutional provision setting a firm deadline for its first meeting after the election but could meet to choose a president and prime minister by mid-February, officials said on Monday.
The constitution ratified in October sets a deadline of 15 days from the certification of final election results for the parliament to meet and elect a speaker and president; a 10-day period for hearing appeals against the results of Dec. 15 begins on Tuesday, meaning certification can be expected about Feb. 3.
That would put the deadline for parliament holding its first meeting on around Feb. 18. However, officials have agreed that for the first parliament to be elected under the new constitution this deadline should not apply, to ensure that there is time to negotiate among the rival factions.
"They don't have a timetable for the first meeting," a source in parliament's legal department said.
"They can meet at any time after the results are announced. But they have to bear in mind that they have to be in a position to elect a speaker at the first session. So they're not going to meet before reaching a deal on the speaker at least."
Officials in all the major political groupings confirmed that was their understanding of the coming weeks' schedule.
Party leaders have also agreed that, as with the interim assembly a year ago, key posts should be allocated as part of a simultaneous package deal, rather than consecutively as dictated in a timetable laid down in the constitution.
PROCESS COULD MOVE QUICKLY
As a result, the first meeting of parliament could be delayed until such a deal is in place -- but once agreement is reached, the process could move quickly.
"I don't think we're going to meet before mid-February. We have to reach an overall deal first in which we name the president, prime minister and the speaker," Abbas al-Bayati, an official in the dominant Shi'ite Alliance bloc.
He said there was already consensus on Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani staying on as president and on the Alliance, with a near-majority, having the right to name the prime minister. It hoped to do that by the end of this week, deciding between Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Adel Abdul Mahdi.
That would leave Sunni leaders, now fully represented in parliament after ending last year's boycott, to propose their own choice for the speaker of parliament, Bayati said.
Although the constitution lays down the election of a speaker, followed by the president and two vice-presidents and then the nomination of a prime minister by the president, a package deal will be thrashed out over the coming weeks, sharing out key posts among the rival sectarian and ethnic factions.
Technically, the prime minister has two weeks to form a government, but officials expect the main posts in the cabinet to be agreed by the time the prime minister is appointed.
Additional reporting by Alastair Macdonald
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Citation: Mariam Karouny. "Iraq parliament sets no deadline for first meeting," Reuters, 23 January 2006.
Original URL: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/KAR359801.htm
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