Mohammed al-Halbousi calls choice ‘strange’, implies it violates structure and undermines nationwide stability.
Iraq‘s prime court docket has terminated the tenure of Parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi, who known as the choice “strange” and prompt it violated the structure and undermined nationwide stability.
The Federal Supreme Courtroom’s ruling on the profession of the nation’s strongest Sunni politician is closing and never topic to enchantment, in line with state media stories on Tuesday.
The court docket mentioned in an announcement that it determined to terminate al-Halbousi’s membership in Parliament together with that of lawmaker Laith al-Dulaimi. It didn’t elaborate on why it was issuing the choice.
In a video shared by his media workplace, al-Halbousi additionally mentioned: “We are surprised by the issuance of such decisions, we are surprised by their lack of respect for the constitution.”
He mentioned that in his 5 years as speaker he had operated with integrity and “never discriminated” between Sunni and Shia Muslims.
The choice was associated to a case introduced towards al-Halbousi this 12 months by the identical court docket, state media reported, with out elaborating, in line with the Reuters information company.
Lawmakers had gathered for an everyday parliamentary session and al-Halbousi was within the chamber on the time the choice was issued however then exited, unbiased Iraqi lawmaker Amer al-Fayez advised Reuters.
Al-Halbousi, a former governor of Anbar province, was elected speaker in 2018. He was 37 on the time and the youngest speaker of Parliament in Iraq’s historical past. He was re-elected in 2022 for a second time period.
He has been the very best Sunni official in Iraq. Beneath the nation’s sectarian power-sharing system, the Parliament speaker is all the time Sunni, the prime minister Shia and the president Kurdish.
Now 42, the previous engineer from western Iraq who labored as a US contractor after the USA’ invasion in 2003, cultivated good relations with the Shia Muslims and Kurds who helped his rise to energy.
Nonetheless, he misplaced help inside Iraq’s ruling Shia alliance, the Coordination Framework (CF), after he tried to kind a authorities with their opponents following parliamentary elections in 2022. He finally joined the CF in authorities, however analysts say the harm was performed and he was seen as untrustworthy and as accumulating an excessive amount of energy attributable to his push to rally Sunnis who had been politically divided since 2003 right into a unified entrance.
The court docket’s choice was towards the backdrop of a dispute between al-Halbousi and al-Dulaimi, additionally Sunni. Al-Dulaimi had filed a lawsuit towards al-Halbousi claiming that the speaker had cast his signature on a resignation letter, an allegation the speaker denied, The Related Press information company reported.
Deputy Speaker Mohsen al-Mandalawi will take over as interim speaker till a brand new head of the legislature is appointed.
The political shakeup comes forward of Iraq’s scheduled provincial elections on December 18. Polls for provincial councils final befell a decade in the past.
