Iraq’s Shiite Coalition Urges Speedy Election of Political Leaders

“All the heads of Iraq’s National Coalition gathered at Ibrahim al-Jaafari’s office in Baghdad on Friday and assessed the first parliamentary session held on Tuesday,” The Iraqi news network al-Sumaria quoted the office of former Iraqi prime minister and the current head of the National Coalition Ibrahim al-Jaafari as saying.

The statement by al-Jaafri’s office adds that the participants in the Friday meeting also called for more efforts to maintain the national unity and urged collaboration of efforts between the central government and the Kurdistan region in order to provide better services for those who have been displaced in the attacks by the ISIL terrorist group.

The National Reform headed by al-Jaafari had earlier announced that the National Coalition had not reached a consensus on a candidate for the post of prime minister. That is while Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law Coalition has reiterated that Maliki is their sole option for the prime minister.

Incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced on Friday that he would never leave the office because of the trust Iraqi nation put on him.

According to the Iraqi Constitution, if the parliament succeeds to elect a new speaker and two deputies, the next step should be choosing new president within the next 30 days.

Following that, the new head of state will have half of a month to ask the bloc with the most lawmakers to nominate a prime minister, who will be responsible for forming a new government.

The duration for the prime minister-designate to select his cabinet members, and present the list to the parliament is 30 days.