"last date for electing President is end of working hours on July 13."

"last date for electing President is end of working hours on July 13."

Saturday, June 26th 2010 2:04 PM


Baghdad, June 26 (AKnews) – A legal expert said on Saturday that the end of the working hours July 13 next is the deadline for the assignment of a new President, that will be preceded by electing the Speaker of the Parliament.

"Article 72 of the Iraqi constitution is clear, which suggested that the Parliament choses a new president after 30 days of the first session of the Parlliament," Tariq Harb, A legal expert said.

"The constitutional article identified 30 days for the first convening, the first session was not specified, so the skeptics in the end of the constitutional deadline for choosing the new President on 14 of next July don’t depend on the correct interpretation of the Article," Harb said.


"Not committing with the deadline of article 72 of the Iraqi Constitution result in perjury because the Parliament members were sorn in to apply the Constitution and law faithfully," Harb added.

"There is no constitutional provision that disables the extended period specified in Article 72 of the Constitution concerning the election of the new President," Harb said.

The new Iraqi Parliament had hold its first session on June 14th with the presence of the majority of its members and representatives of Arab and foreign ambassadors, a number of members read the constitutional oath, while electing the Parliament Speaker was postponed in the session, because of lack of agreement of the political blocs on a particular candidate to take over the post and the Speaker of the Parliament.

The four winning major political blocs in the elections which are, Al- Iraqiya List, the State of Law collation, the Iraqi National Alliance (INA) and the Kurdistan Alliance didn’t succeed to agree on a mechanism to select the three Presidencies due to the ongoing dispute over the prime minister's post.

The Election Commission in Iraq announced that the number of the winning blocs remained the same, after the manual recount in Baghdad, which lasted for 12 days due to an appeal, presented by the State of Law coalition, led by the current Prime Minster, Nuri Al-Maliki which was accepted by the discriminatory Board in the Commission.

The Iraqi scene had witnessed a great debate among the winners in the elections over Article 76 of the constitutional text about the right of the largest bloc to form the government.

Al-Iraqiya coalition (91 seats) insists that the Article refers to the winning list in the elections, while the State of Law coalition (89 seats) considers that the text means any bloc that might be established as a result of a merger or an alliance of any winning bloc after the elections.

Before announcing the results, the State of Law (91 seats) and INA (70 seats) had intensified their contacts, as it was ended by declaring the formation of a parliamentary bloc that was interpreted by the leaders in both coalitions that they have the right to form the government, because they are the largest parliamentary bloc in the new Parliament.

This controversial interpretation has outraged the leaders of Al-Iraqiya, who considered it as a coup against democracy and the electoral and constitutional right.

Violence in Iraq had escalated on the background of the delay in forming the Iraqi government and the political leaders warn from the delay in forming the government that will reflect negatively on the security situation.

http://www.aknews.com/en/aknews/4/158515/