Iraqi parliament holds final session as mandate ends

By Ali Jawad

BAGHDAD (AA) – The Iraqi parliament will hold its final session on Saturday as parliamentary blocs have failed to extend its term.

“Today, June 30, is the last day of the parliament’s mandate,” Tarek Harb, a legal expert and a member of the Iraqi Bar Association, told Anadolu Agency.

He said Iraqi parliament serves for four years as the constitution stipulates.

“There is no legal basis to allow parliament to extend its mandate beyond the four-year term,” he added.

On June 6, parliament voted in favor of amending Iraq’s election law, allowing votes to be recounted manually, a move that was upheld by the Supreme Federal Court.

Last week, the incumbent parliament, however, failed to hold an official session to extend its mandate until the manual recount is finalized.

Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Sairoon coalition dominated the May 12 parliamentary election, winning 54 parliamentary seats, according to official results. Sairoon was followed by a Hashd al-Shaabi-led coalition (47 seats) and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's Victory Bloc (42 seats).