The Speaker of the Council of Representatives of Iraq, Heibat al-Halbousi, officially announced on Sunday, January 25, 2026, that the parliamentary session to elect the President of Iraq will be held this coming Tuesday, January 27, Report informs via Iraqi News.
The session is a critical constitutional requirement, as the Parliament is mandated to elect a president within 30 days of its first session-a deadline that expires at the end of January.
The Iraqi Parliament has released the final list of 19 approved candidates out of an initial 44 applicants. The frontrunners represent a significant clash between the two major Kurdish parties.
To secure the presidency, a candidate must navigate a complex voting process mandated by the constitution and interpreted by the Federal Supreme Court:
- Quorum: The session requires the presence of at least two-thirds of the total members (220 out of 329 MPs).
- Winning Threshold: A candidate wins in the first round if they receive two-thirds of the total house votes.
- Run-off Round: If no candidate reaches the threshold, a second round is held between the top two contenders. The candidate with the most votes in the second round is declared the winner.
Under the post-2003 "Muhasasa" (quota) system, the presidency is reserved for the Kurdish component, while the prime ministership is assigned to a Shia and the parliamentary speaker to a Sunni. This session follows the election of Heibat al-Halbousi as Speaker on December 29, 2025. Once elected, the new President will have 15 days to officially charge the nominee of the largest parliamentary bloc-recently announced by the Coordination Framework as Nouri al-Maliki-to form the next government.