Iraq has entered a constitutional vacuum after the Parliament failed several times this year to elect a new president.
It led to the end of the constitutional deadline set by the Federal Supreme Court on April 6.
The supreme court was obliged to resort to legal jurisprudence and issue a decision to continue the current President Barham Salih's term until a president is elected to office.
Since its first session on February 9, Parliament failed to elect a president from 40 candidates led by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) candidate, the current president, Barham Salih, and the Kurdistan Democratic Party's (KDP) candidate, Rebar Ahmed. The KDP's previous candidate Hoshyar Zebari was disqualified because the house of representatives withdrew his confidence when he was finance minister.
Iraqi Parliament could not convene in the past weeks to hold a session to elect the president of the republic because the house could not meet the required quorum of two-thirds of the 329 MPs.
The tripartite alliance to Save the Homeland consists of the Sadrist Movement, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and the Sunni Alliance, which is calling to form a national majority government, failed to mobilize the majority of the votes to meet the required threshold.
On the other hand, the Coordination Framework that boycotted the sessions works to form a consensus government. It comprises Shia and Kurdish forces, most notably the PUK, State of Law Coalition, and Al-Fateh.
It does not support the tripartite alliance and has joined the "blocking third" to prevent voting a president of the republic.
Iraq entered a constitutional vacuum when the deadline set by the Federal Court expired last March. The supreme court opened the door for the presidential candidate before the Presidency of the House of Representatives for 30 days per Article 72/2 of the Iraqi Constitution.
According to the Iraqi news agency INA, this 30-day period is from March 6 to April 6, the house shall elect the president of the republic.