BAGHDAD, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi federal court on Sunday ratified the final results of May 12 parliamentary elections, marking the first step toward forming the new Iraqi government.
Ayas al-Samouk, spokesperson of the Federal Supreme Court, said in a statement that the court's members held a session in the morning to consider the request for ratification of the final results of the elections of the Iraqi Council of Representatives.
"After reviewing and deliberating the names (of parliament members) that received from the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), the Federal Supreme Court issued this afternoon its decision to ratify the names," Samouk said.
The approval confirmed the preliminary results of May 12 elections which showed the Sairoon Coalition backed by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was the front-runner and won 54 seats in the upcoming 329-seat parliament.
The ratification of the results will widely open the door for Iraqi politicians to form the next government and would give a push for the tough negotiations by the political blocs to form the largest alliance before the first session of the new parliament.
According to the Iraqi constitution, the ratification of the results entails the outgoing President Fuad Masoum to call on the new parliament to hold its first session under the chairmanship of the elder parliament member within two weeks, to elect a president of parliament and then the president of the republic, who will ask the largest alliance to form a government within 30 days.
On May 12, millions of Iraqis went to 8,959 polling centers across the country to vote for their parliamentary representatives in the first general election after Iraq's historic victory over the Islamic State militant group last December.
