ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Voting has entered a second round to elect Iraq’s second deputy parliament speaker after neither incumbent Shakhawan Abdullah of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) nor opposition Halwest Movement lawmaker Rebwar Karim secured enough votes in the first round.
In the first round, Karim received 153 votes, while Abdullah won 119. The session was briefly postponed due to a lack of quorum before the bell was rung for another round of voting.
“We do deals honestly. We aren’t people who make deals and schemes. We will not lose trust,” Halwest leader Ali Hama Saleh said in a statement posted on Facebook following the first vote.
The recently established Halwest won five seats in the Iraqi general elections in November.
KDP lawmaker Sherwan Dubardani told Rudaw after the vote count that his party was “shocked” by the outcome, accusing some political forces of failing to honor prior agreements.
“The agreement that has been made by the KDP or our leader with other political parties, whether the Sunnis or the [Shiite Coordination] Framework, unfortunately, lawmakers do not commit to it when it comes to implementation,” Dubardani said.
“Unfortunately, a betrayal was done again. A scheme was made again,” Dubardani claimed.
He pointed to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani’s Reconstruction and Development Coalition (RDC), which holds 46 seats, and the Badr Organization, led by Hadi al-Ameri, which has 18 seats, suggesting they did not fully support Abdullah.
“It seems like most of them have not abided by Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani’s decision,” Dubardani said, adding that “we saw the messages ourselves from Mr. Hadi al-Ameri [where they were told] to vote for Mr. Shakhawan [Abdullah].”
“The Kurdish political parties, it seems like none of them voted,” Dubardani said, without elaborating.
KDP lawmaker Danar Abdulghafar told Rudaw that lawmakers from their rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) were “gathering votes for Dr. Rebwar [Karim], they were working for it, lobbying for it.”
Abdulghafar said that “this may be related to the presidency.” The KDP and PUK have failed to agree on a unified Kurdish candidate for Iraq’s presidency, with both parties pursuing the post independently.
Earlier in the session, Haibat al-Halbousi of the Sunni Taqaddum Party was elected speaker of parliament. He thanked political parties and lawmakers for entrusting him with what he described as a “grave national responsibility.”
Halbousi ran against Salim Matar al-Issawi of the Sovereignty Alliance and Shiite lawmaker Amer Abdul-Jabbar, securing 208 votes. Issawi received 66 votes, while Abdul-Jabbar won nine.
Adnan Fayhan of the Sadiqoun bloc was also elected first deputy speaker, defeating incumbent Muhsin al-Mandalawi.
The session was chaired by Amer al-Fayez, the oldest lawmaker and head of the Shiite Tasmim Alliance, in line with parliamentary bylaws. Lawmakers were sworn in during the session in both Kurdish and Arabic.
Under Iraq’s informal power-sharing system established after the 2003 US-led invasion, the parliament speakership is reserved for Sunni Arabs, the premiership for Shiites, and the presidency for Kurds. Despite this arrangement, Sunni political forces have remained divided.