Iraqi parliament convenes to choose new leaders

Baghdad, July 15 (IANS) Iraqi lawmakers convened a third meeting Tuesday to choose new leaders who will form a new government to avoid possible split-up amid continuous sectarian clashes.

Mahdi al-Hafidh, the acting speaker, opened the session with 207 lawmakers out of 328 parliament members attending, Xinhua reported.

The parliament is scheduled to choose a new speaker after the Sunni Arab politicians earlier picked Salim al-Jubouri as a candidate for the head of the legislature.

They are also expected to elect two deputy speakers later in the session.

The parliament originally was scheduled to hold its first session July 1, but political differences to fill in the vacant speakership postponed the date twice.

According to the Iraqi constitution, a new president should be chosen within the next 30 days after the election of the speaker.

Following that, the new head of state will have half a month to ask the bloc with the most lawmakers to nominate a prime minister, who will be responsible for forming a new government.

The duration for a prime minister-designate to select his cabinet members and present the list to the parliament is 30 days.

With the country's ever deepening security crisis, a new unity government is now considered vital for Iraq to counter the Sunni insurgency that threatens to split the country apart.

Iraq has been witnessing its worst security conditions since about a month ago when armed Sunni insurgents, spearheaded by the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), launched a surprise offensive that led to the debacle of Iraqi security forces and the fallen of a large part of the country's northern and western territories.