Summary
Iraqi lawmakers broke two weeks of deadlock Tuesday and elected a new speaker of parliament, with no sign on whether lawmakers would eventually agree on the most contentious decision – the choice for prime minister.
After a closed-door vote, the legislature tallied the results on a whiteboard wheeled into the hall that showed Sunni lawmaker Salim al-Jubouri winning with 194 votes out of 273 cast in the 328-seat parliament. A second candidate, Shorooq al-Abayachi, received 19 votes.
Parliament now has 30 days to elect a president, who will then have 15 days to ask the leader of the legislature's largest bloc to form a government.
Perhaps just as important were the divisions that emerged within the National Alliance, the umbrella group for Shiite parties, during the vote for the first of two deputy speakers.
The dispute pointed to the deep divisions within the National Alliance, and suggested that Shiite parties are still far from settling on a common candidate for the crucial post of prime minister.
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