MP says Samarraie’s win expected

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A prominent figure in the Iraqi National List (INL) on Sunday described Iyad al-Samarraie’s win in the vote held earlier today to elect a Parliament speaker as “expected,” saying most lawmakers wanted to settle the issue once and for all. Earlier today, the vote counting to elect a speaker ended with Samarraie winning the post with a majority of votes. “The Iraqi list, which voted for Samarraie, expected him to secure this number of votes,” MP Osama al-Nujeifi told IraqiNews.com news agency. Mahmoud al-Mashhadani stepped down as Parliament speaker in December 2008 following a heated argument with members of parliamentary committees, during which he allegedly used “offensive” language that prompted many parliamentarians to call for his resignation. Samarraie was born in 1946 in the city of Samarra, Salah al-Din province. Samarraie is descending from a renowned family. His father used to be the military attaché in an Arab country before receiving a death sentence and was executed in the 1970s. Samarraie was also a member of the Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP). He climbed up the partisan ladder in Iraq and was tracked down by the former regime in 1980. He received a death sentence and had to leave Iraq for neighboring Jordan, later to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and then to the United Kingdom (UK), where he re-established the IIP. SS (P) 1