The Iraqi Parliament failed Saturday to elect a new president due to a lack of quorum in parliament, with a large number of deputies boycotting the vote.

Parliament had issued a final list of 40 candidates for the post, a largely ceremonial role that by convention is reserved for a member of Iraq's Kurdish minority.

The contest pits Barham Salih, the incumbent and a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), against Rebar Ahmed, a veteran Kurdish intelligence official and current interior minister of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the PUK's rival.

But the lack of a quorum – set at two-thirds of the house's 329 members – held up the vote for the second time since February, deepening war-scarred Iraq's political uncertainty.

A statement issued by parliament said 126 out of 329 legislators boycotted the session.

Only 202 lawmakers showed up for the latest vote, a parliamentary official told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on condition of anonymity.

Following the session, parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi said the "lack of a quorum forces us to continue holding sessions until it is achieved," the state-owned Iraqi News Agency reported.

However, Iraqi politicians have so far failed to agree on a compromise candidate for the presidency, exacerbating a political vacuum that also prevents the appointment of a prime minister. Political groups now have two options, some deputies said: Continue negotiations until consensus is reached or dissolve parliament and hold federal elections again.

"Now the political process is in trouble," Shiite Iraqi deputy Muhammad Saadoun Al-Sayhoud told the Associated Press (AP).

"It is a storm in a cup. Today is good proof that the party that had claimed that it has the majority had failed to achieve it. It is a bad situation getting worse," Farhad Alaaldin, chairperson of the Iraq Advisory Council, a policy research institute, told Reuters.

A parliamentary statement said the Parliament set March 30, Wednesady to hold a session to elect the president, reported Anadolu Agency (AA). The current caretaker government will continue to run the country until a new government is formed.

The postponement exacerbates Iraq's political problems because it is the task of the president to formally name a prime minister, who must be backed by an absolute majority in parliament.

On Feb. 13, Iraq's supreme court ruled out a presidential bid by KDP-backed veteran politician Hoshyar Zebari, after a complaint filed against him over years-old, untried corruption charges.

Iraqi politics were thrown into turmoil following last October's general election, which was marred by record low turnout, post-vote threats and violence, and a monthslong delay before the final results were confirmed.

Sharp divisions

Intense negotiations among political factions have since failed to forge a majority in support of a new prime minister to succeed Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

Presidential elections initially scheduled for last month stalled after most parliamentary blocs boycotted the voting session due to differences over presidential candidates and the government formation.

The largest political bloc, led by firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, had backed Zebari for the presidency and has now thrown its weight behind Rebar Ahmed.

A first vote in parliament on Feb. 7 failed to materialize as it was widely boycotted amid the Zebari legal wrangle.

Saturday's failed session underscored the sharp divide in Iraqi politics between Sadr, the general election's big winner, and the powerful Coordination Framework, which had called for a boycott.

The Coordination Framework includes the pro-Iran Fatah Alliance – the political arm of the Shiite-led former paramilitary group Hashd al-Shaabi.

With the support of Sunni and Kurdish parties, Sadr wants the post of prime minister to go to his cousin Jaafar Sadr, Iraq's ambassador to Britain, once the question of the four-year presidency has been settled.

Ahead of Saturday's vote, political analyst Ihsan al-Shammari had said that, even if the vote had gone ahead as planned, the presidency would "not be decided in the first round."

The candidate who wins the largest number of votes must secure a two-thirds majority in a second round of voting in parliament to win the presidency.

Political deadlock

Under a power-sharing system designed to avoid sectarian conflict, Iraq's president is a Kurd, its prime minister a Shiite and its parliament speaker a Sunni.

Since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, the selection of a president and prime minister after each election has been a long, slow process hampered by political deadlock.

Iran-aligned groups have normally had their way, using their role in defeating the Daesh terrorist group in 2017 to catapult commanders into parliamentary seats in an election the following year.

Sadr opposes all foreign influence in Iraq, including by the United States and Iran. He has increased his political power in recent years but must still contend with his Shiite rivals.

Sadr has vowed to push through what he calls a "national majority" government, a euphemism for one that excludes pro-Iran groups. Those groups retain heavily-armed and powerful militias and maintain a grip over many state institutions.

Sadr's Sadrist Bloc has joined forces with the KDP and a Sunni Muslim alliance in efforts to form a parliamentary majority.

Most Iraqis view all groups involved in governing the country as corrupt. Anger has simmered for years at the Shiite-dominated political class that emerged after the 2003 invasion.

That anger burst into mass demonstrations in 2019, in which government security forces and Iran-aligned militiamen shot dead hundreds of demonstrators.

Some fear Sadr's intensifying face-off with the Iran-aligned groups could descend into violence.

Mohamed, a civil servant who preferred not to give his full name, blamed the political system for the aborted vote.

"The constitution itself was drafted incorrectly," he told AFP. "As a result, the whole political process is full of mistakes," he lamented.