DISAGREEMENT OVER SPEAKER AUTHORITIES HOLDS UP

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 001691 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/22/2016 TAGS: PGOV KDEM IZ SUBJECT: DISAGREEMENT OVER SPEAKER AUTHORITIES HOLDS UP PASSAGE OF PARLIAMENT BYLAWS Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ROBERT S. FORD, FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). ¶1. (SBU) The Council of Representatives (149 members attending) convened its seventh session May 22 for the third reading of the Council's bylaws but adjourned without completing its work. Deputy Speaker Khalid Attiyah chaired the session in the absence of Speaker Mahmoud Mashdani. Since there was still no agreement between the political blocs on the authorities of the Council's "Presidency Commission," i.e., the Speaker and the Deputy Speakers, the reading of chapters one, two, and six (and two other related articles outside these chapters) was postponed. ¶2. (U) Two articles dealing with the jurisdiction of the Services Committee and the Independent Commissions Committee were also referred to the Bylaws Committee for review. Some members wanted to expand the authority of the Services Committee to include labor and employment, while others said the Independent Commissions Committee's jurisdiction overlapped with that of other committees. ¶3. (C) After the session, Acting Chairman of the Bylaws Committee, Muhsin Saadoon, told PolOff and PolFSN that he did not believe the issue of the speaker's authorities would be resolved before the next session, which he predicted would be postponed from its scheduled date of May 23. He said a decision on these authorities must be made by the leaders of the parliamentary political blocs. He added that the disagreement on the authorities revolves mainly around the issue of who controls Council staff appointments, the Speaker alone or the Council's Presidency Commission. (NOTE: At a May 21 meeting with PolOffs, Speaker Mashadani stressed that he wanted to be in charge of hiring Council staff. END NOTE) Subsequently, Saadoon told PolOff the evening of May 22 that the Shia Coalition and Tawafuq continued to disagree on this issue. The Shia Coalition (with the support of the Kurdish Alliance) would like to have most authorities invested in the Council's Presidency Commission, that is in the Speaker and Deputies collectively, with most decisions made by consensus. Tawafuq would like the Speaker to retain the independent authorities he had in the TNA. ¶4. (C) COMMENT. The disagreement over the authorities of the Speaker does not appear to be having any outward affect on the regular meetings of the Council's Presidency Commission. The Speaker and the two Deputies continue to meet almost daily, and indeed did so right before the May 22 session started. END COMMENT. KHALILZAD