For the third time, the Iraqi parliament fails to choose the president amid anger from Al-Sadr

The Iraqi parliament adjourned its session, which was held on Wednesday, without specifying its next date, after it failed for the third time to choose a new president for the republic.

The parliament's media department said in a statement that "the House of Representatives adjourned its session to further notice after voting on the tasks of a number of parliamentary committees and the names of their members."

Wednesday's session came after the failure of Saturday's session, in which it was scheduled to elect the President of the Republic, due to the lack of a quorum of two-thirds of the 329 deputies needed to start the process.

The Iraqi parliament has until April 6 to elect a president, according to a decision of the Federal Court, the country's highest judicial authority.

If this date is exceeded, there is nothing in the constitution that specifies how to deal with the issue, so the possibilities remain open if the concerned parties do not reach an agreement.

Saturday's session was boycotted by 126 deputies at the invitation of the coordinating framework, the influential coalition that includes the "State of Law" bloc led by former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and the Fatah bloc, which includes pro-Iran factions.

On the other hand, participated in the meeting officially 202 deputies, belonging to the coalition led by the Sadrist movement.

The number of attendees at Wednesday's session, which was boycotted by the same forces and currents that did not attend Saturday's session, was not announced.

In an angry reaction to the parliament's failure to choose a president for the republic, the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, said in a tweet on Twitter: "I will not agree with you ... consensus means the end of the country."

Al-Sadr added, "What you call a political blockage is easier than agreeing with you and better than sharing the cake with you. There is no good in a consensus government."

Al-Sadr stressed that "the homeland will not be subject to subordination, occupation, normalization and quotas...and the people will never bow to them."

The Sadrist movement, the biggest winner in the legislative elections, is pushing to form a majority government, stressing that it has the largest bloc with an alliance of 155 deputies with the Kurdistan Democratic Party and a large Sunni bloc from a group of parties, most notably a party led by Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi.

The "Save the Homeland" coalition led by al-Sadr supports the candidate Reber Ahmed for the presidency, and Jaafar al-Sadr, Iraq's ambassador to London and a relative of the leader of the Sadrist movement, to head the government.

On the other hand, the coordination framework, which has an alliance of more than 100 deputies, calls for a consensus government among the most prominent Shiite forces, as usual.

There are forty candidates for the presidency of the republic, but the actual competition is limited to two figures representing the two most prominent Kurdish parties: the current president since 2018 Barham Salih, the candidate of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and Reber Ahmed, the candidate of the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

It is assumed that the candidate gets the votes of two-thirds of the House of Representatives to win.

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