Source: Xinhua| 2018-09-04 22:39:06|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BAGHDAD, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi lawmakers Tuesday agreed to resume their session on Sept. 15 to elect a new speaker of the parliament.

The move is to give a push to the political process after deep division among the parliamentary blocs, the parliament said.

The parliament decision came after a meeting of the eldest parliament member Mohammed Ali Zayni, who temporarily chairs the newly elected parliament, with heads of the political parliamentary blocs earlier in the day, said a statement of the media office of the parliament.

On Monday, the parliament held its first session since May 12 parliamentary elections but failed to elect a new speaker, who should be from the Sunni political blocs.

In accordance with 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.

The divided Sunni blocs nominated six candidates for the speaker post, which will need absolute majority of the total 165 lawmakers by direct secret ballot.

The parliament also will have to elect the speaker's first deputy and second deputy, usually to be one from the Shiite candidate and another from Kurdish candidate, who both will need absolute majority by direct ballot.

Zayni tried to resume the session later after giving time for lawmakers to reach a consensus, but the parliament failed to reach a quorum.

The competing political blocs had each claimed to hold majority to form the largest alliance, which will have the right to form the next government.

The conflicted announcements by the competing political blocs confused the political scene and hampered the important progress in forming a new government.

According to the Iraqi constitution, the parliament shall elect the president from the Kurdish lawmakers by a two-thirds majority of its members. Then, the elected president will ask the largest alliance to form a government within 30 days.

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.