Kurdish groups boycott Iraqi parliament session

The 15th regular session of the Iraqi Council of Representatives has taken place after a postponement of 30 minutes, and boycott from politicians of the Kurdistan Alliance (KA) parliamentary bloc. The session was initially postponed by Speaker of the council, Usama al-Nujayfi, due to a lack of quorum, before it continued with the 178 representatives in attendance. Parliamentary rapporteur Mohammed al-Khalidi told Arabstoday that the delay had been due to the lack of numbers. "Speaker Usama al-Nujayfi initially decided to postpone the session for half an hour due to lack of quorum. However, he then decided to continue after the number of attendees reached the required quorum," he said. Khalidi explained that the meeting was held under the chairmanship of al-Nujayfi and in the presence of 178 politicians. He added that that representatives of the Kurdistan Alliance, who have 43 seats, announced they would boycott the session but refused to state their reasons. The rapporteur said that the session discussed several significant national issues. "The agenda of the session included voting on increasing the financial withholding for officials who had failed to attend the parliamentary sessions and the committee meetings, and also voting on the validity of the membership of MP Tamer Ibrahim Zahir," he explained. Members are also expected to vote on the draft law of establishing the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) as an international organisation, and ratifying the memorandum of the Japanese loan to Iraq, signed on 29 May 2012.