Baghdad - (AFP) - Iraq 's parliament scheduled, on Thursday, October 13, a session to elect the president of the republic, as stated in a statement issued by the office of the speaker of parliament on Tuesday, a year after Political paralysis followed early parliamentary elections.

The statement stated that "Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi announces a session on Thursday, corresponding to October 13," and that the agenda will be "from one paragraph, which is the election of the President of the Republic."

The sudden announcement comes amid a severe political crisis in the country.

Iraq held early legislative elections on October 10, 2021, under the pressure of the unprecedented popular protests that took place in the fall of 2019, rejecting the corruption of the political class and the deterioration of the infrastructure.

But a year later, the parties to the crisis failed to reach an agreement on electing a new president and naming a new prime minister.

The position of the President of the Republic belongs to the Kurdish minority, but differences have persisted for months between the two major Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, according to observers.

The position usually belongs to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, but the KDP is seeking to take it. It seems that the most likely candidates are the current President of the Republic and the candidate of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Barham Salih, and Reber Ahmed, Minister of Interior in the Kurdistan Regional Government, for the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

The election of the president is supposed to be a first step towards appointing a prime minister to be chosen by the largest bloc in Parliament.
Until now, differences still exist between the two Shiite political poles, namely the coordination framework, and the Sadrist movement.

For his part, Muqtada al-Sadr calls for the dissolution of Parliament and the holding of early legislative elections, while the Coordination Framework, which includes pro-Iranian factions, calls for the formation of a new government before going to elections.

The tension reached its climax on August 29, when armed confrontations broke out between supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr on the one hand, and forces from the army and the popular crowd on the other, during which more than 30 members of the Sadrist movement were killed.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) said in a statement on Monday that "all actors must engage in dialogue without preconditions." It called on the country's politicians to "collectively agree on the main results by making concessions that reaffirm their declared goal of meeting the needs of the Iraqi people and forming a government with full and effective powers."