Council of Representatives - New Session

     On April 14, 2009, the Iraqi Council of Representatives (CoR) will begin a new legislative session. The first issue to be considered will likely be the Speaker of the House position, vacated by Mahmoud al-Mashadani in December of 2008. This will be the seventh time since al-Mashadani’s ouster that CoR will attempt to fill the position. Many other issues still await deliberation in CoR. One of these will likely be the constitutional reform legislation for which Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has been calling. This may entail the formalization of some non-constitutional entities, such as the position of the national security advisor and the Counter-Terrorism Bureau, whose legitimacy were called into question during the 2009 Budget Process. Also, political resistance to al-Maliki’s recent overtures to elements of the constitutionally-banned Baath party is likely to affect constitutional reform deliberations. Other outstanding issues awaiting CoR approval include the Hydrocarbons (Gas and Oil) Law, official procedure for retiring military personnel, freedom of the press guarantees, and the law intended to regulate the upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for later this year.¹