Iraqi Parliament Elects New Speaker, Ending Yearlong Deadlock

Al-Mashhadani, who served a previous stint as speaker from 2006 to 2009, was selected by a vote of 182 of the 269 legislators who attended the session on Thursday. Parliament has 329 seats.

In November 2023, the Federal Supreme Court abruptly terminated the tenure of the most powerful Sunni parliament speaker, Mohammed al-Halbousi, without saying why, setting the stage for a fight over succession that dragged on for close to 12 months, Al Jazeera reported.

Al-Halbousi, who had served as the governor of Anbar province, was elected in 2018. He was 37 at the time and became the youngest parliament speaker in the country’s history. He was re-elected in 2022 for a second term and served until his removal in 2023.

Al-Mashhadani secured his election with significant support from the coalition that includes influential Shiite parties and the State of Law coalition led by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Under the country’s sectarian power-sharing system, the parliament speaker is always Sunni, the prime minister Shiite and the president Kurdish.

The role of speaker is crucial in Iraq’s often fragmented political landscape. Al-Mashhadani will now have to tackle many challenges including corruption and internal divisions that could also threaten his post.

He will also have to deal with some controversial legislation, including a proposed amendment to Iraq’s personal status law governing family matters, which critics say would in effect legalize child marriage.