27 August 2018•Update: 28 August 2018
By Ibrahim Saleh
BAGHDAD
Iraqi President Fuad Masum on Monday issued a decree to convene the first session of the country’s recently-elected parliament on Sept. 3, an official statement released by the presidency said.
According to Iraqi law, the parliament must convene through a presidential decree within 15 days of election results.
The move comes as a step towards forming the new government over which negotiations are taking place among the winning political blocks.
For more than two months, the results of Iraq’s hard-fought parliamentary polls have remained the subject of a bitter dispute amid widespread allegations of voter fraud.
The formation of a new government in Iraq has been delayed since May, when the results of the parliamentary elections were fiercely disputed, leading to a recount of votes.
According to the results, Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Coalition won 54 parliamentary seats, followed by a Hashd al-Shaabi-led coalition (47 seats) and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's Victory Bloc (42 seats).
Earlier this month, Iraq's electoral commission announced that a manual recount of the vote results more or less the same as the initial electronic vote count, while Iraqi Federal Court approved the vote results.
Within 30 days of that first parliament session, the assembly will elect -- by a two-thirds majority -- the country’s next president.
The president will then task the largest bloc in parliament with drawing up a government, which must be referred back to parliament for approval.
