BAGHDAD, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi parliament Monday held its first session within its fourth legislative term, signalling important progress in forming a new government.
The 329-seat parliament is holding its session under the chairmanship of Mohammed Zayni, the eldest member of the parliament, and the lawmakers should wear in before they elect the new parliament speaker and his two deputies.
According to the Iraqi constitution, the Council of Representatives (parliament) shall elect its speaker, then his first deputy and second deputy, by an absolute majority of the total number of the lawmakers by direct secret ballot.
Later, the parliament shall elect the president from among the candidates by a two-thirds majority of its members, and according to the power-sharing system in Iraq, the president should be for the Kurds, the speaker for the Sunnis and the prime minister for the Shiites.
Then, the elected president will ask the largest alliance to form a government within 30 days, according to the constitution.
So far, the rival political blocs claimed they have formed the largest alliance that would form the next government, hours before the first parliament session.
On May 12, millions of Iraqis went to 8,959 polling centers across the country to vote for their parliamentary representatives in the first general election since Iraq's historic victory over the Islamic State militant group in December 2017.
