Iraq parliament ordered to convene
President Talabani asks newly elected parliament to convene on June 14.
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Iraq’s parliament has not convened amid the political uncertainty that followed the March 7 polls.
Iraq’s Supreme Court ratified the results of the general election on June 1, confirming initial figures which put former prime minister Iyad Allawi’s Iraqiya bloc ahead, followed closely by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s State of Law Alliance.
The court has decided, however, that a coalition agreed before parliament’s first meeting would gain primacy over Iraqiya if it held more combined seats.
Earlier this month, State of Law and the Iraqi National Alliance, led by Shia Muslim groups, announced they would form a post-election coalition, leaving them just short of a majority, though they have yet to formalise the arrangement.
“We will be presented in the first session of the parliament as a single bloc,” Haider al-Abadi, a spokesman for the Dawa Party, the lead party in the State of Law alliance, told Reuters.