Baghdad: Legal expert and consultant, Salem Hawas stated that the announcement by the Presidency of the Council of Representatives limiting the candidates who meet the legal requirements for the position of President of the Republic to only 15 names out of 81 applicants cannot be separated from the climate of prior political agreements.

According to National Iraqi News Agency, Hawas emphasized that this measure strips the democratic process of its true substance and transforms constitutional requirements from general and equal standards into tools of selective exclusion, undermining the essence of democratic competition.

In a statement, he explained that Article (68) of the Constitution clearly and narrowly defines the eligibility conditions for candidacy and does not grant any authority the power to conduct prior political filtering of candidates. He stressed that sound constitutional logic requires allowing all candidates who meet the formal requirements to proceed, leaving the final decision to the Council of Representatives through a parliamentary vote.

He noted that narrowing the competition before it reaches the parliamentary chamber represents a clear entrenchment of disguised political quota-sharing, which contradicts democratic principles.

Hawas warned that excluding such a large number of candidates raises serious questions about the transparency of the criteria used and reinforces public perception that the presidency continues to be managed according to political entitlement rather than constitutional merit. He cautioned that persisting with this approach weakens public trust in the democratic process and grants legitimacy to closed political deals at the expense of free parliamentary will.