KDP withdraws Shakhawan Abdullah’s candidacy for second deputy speaker post

Shafaq News– Baghdad

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) decided on Tuesday to withdraw the candidacy of lawmaker Shakhawan Abdullah for the post of second deputy speaker of Iraq’s Council of Representatives, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The source told Shafaq News that MP Farhad Atrushi is likely to be put forward as an alternative candidate for the position.

On Monday’s session, Parliament elected Haibet Al-Halbousi as Speaker with 208 votes out of 329, and Adnan Fayhan as First Deputy Speaker with 177 votes. However, they failed to elect a second deputy speaker. Official results showed lawmaker Rebwar Karim received 156 votes, while Shakhawan Abdullah garnered 102. Another 22 ballots were ruled invalid.

Under political conventions established after 2003, the speaker’s post is allocated to a Sunni Arab, the first deputy speakership to a Shiite Arab, and the second deputy speakership to a Kurd.

Read more: Iraq’s speakership: Two decades of constitutional rules and backroom deals