The age of the new Iraqi parliament speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, adjourned the opening session, after arguments broke out between parliamentarians that led to chaos inside the session, before he was transferred to the hospital after falling ill.

The official Al-Iraqiya channel said that Representative Amer Al-Fayez refused to take over the presidency of the session as a head of age instead of Al-Mashhadani, and indicated that Deputy Khaled Al-Daraji, head of the reserve age, presided over the opening session after it resumed again this evening, in the presence of 205 deputies.

The session must vote to choose the new parliament speaker, who was nominated by the dissolved parliament speaker, Muhammad al-Halbousi and al-Mashhadani.

Al-Mashhadani, the eldest member, presided over the first session, in the presence of 325 deputies, out of the total number of 329 deputies in the Iraqi parliament, and the new deputies took the constitutional oath before him.

"Long live the great October revolution," independent MPs chanted after taking the oath, referring to the popular protests against corruption that began in October 2019.

Deputies of the Sadrist bloc entered the parliament hall wearing shrouds (French)

Deputies of the Sadrist bloc entered the parliament hall wearing shrouds, while the representatives of the independent extension movement and the Kurdish New Generation arrived at the parliament building by tuk-tuk, coming from Tahrir Square, the center of the protest demonstrations.

Al-Mashhadani delivered a speech at the session, in which he demanded to speed up the selection of the Presidency of Parliament, and addressed the new deputies by saying that "the Iraqi people have endured more difficulties, and they are not ready to bear more, and that you bear the historical responsibility for the success of this electoral cycle." Then he decided to adjourn the opening session after altercations between Representatives from the Sadrist bloc and the coordination framework that includes other Shiite forces, regarding the identity of the largest bloc that has the right to form the new government.

The session was delayed for several hours at the request of the coordination framework - which includes all the Shiite political forces except for the Sadrist bloc - to allow the parliamentary blocs to hold further consultations, perhaps leading to a consensus that guarantees going towards holding the session and voting on choosing the parliament speaker and his two deputies.

The results of the 2021 Iraqi parliament elections (Al-Jazeera)

extensive consultations

The corridors of Parliament are witnessing many meetings between the various parliamentary blocs, in an attempt to reach consensus and resolve differences to ensure the passage of candidates to occupy senior positions, and the most numerous bloc that will be entrusted with naming the prime minister and forming the government for the next four years.


According to the constitution, Parliament will have - in its first session today, Sunday - to vote on choosing a speaker by 165 votes out of 329 (the total number of seats in Parliament), a position from the share of Sunni Arabs according to political custom in Iraq after 2003, in addition to two deputies ( One is Kurdish, the other is Shiite.

Then the parliament’s presidency will open the door for candidacy for the presidency within 30 days, and it must, in turn, designate a prime minister within 15 days from the date of his election, and he will be the candidate of the “largest parliamentary bloc,” according to the constitution.

From the day he is appointed, the new prime minister has 30 days to form the government.

Al-Halbousi (right) and the dagger during a previous meeting (communication sites)

Al-Halbousi's nomination

The two main coalitions of Sunni Arabs "Progress" - led by former Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi (37 seats) - and "Azm" - led by Khamis al-Khanjar (14 seats) - who announced their merger into one alliance a few days ago, nominated al-Halbousi to head parliament, to lead The new alliance dagger.

According to the final results of the elections, the Sadrist bloc led by Muqtada al-Sadr won the largest number of parliamentary seats, with 73 seats in the 329-seat parliament.