In the seventh episode Abbas al-Anbori talks about the vote on the presidency in Iraq's parliament . Almost six month ago, on 10 October, 2021, Iraqis had cast their vote and elected a new parliament. A new government, however, has not been formed yet. The struggle between two major competing coalitions „Save the Homeland“ led by Muqtada al-Sadr and the Shiite „Coordination Framework“ headed by former Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri  al-Maliki over who will form the next government continues and reached its climax in recent days. After a tumultuous session in early January the Speaker of Parliament, Mohammed al-Halbousi, was elected and the date for the vote on the presidency was set for 8 February, 2022. However, the key political coalitions - al-Sadr's bloc and the „Coordination Framework“ - both boycotted the vote. Consequently, the necessary quorum of 220 Members of Parliament - out of in total 329 - was not achieved and the election was postponed to 26 March. This time, al-Sadr and his politicalallies attended the session, but their major rivals, the „Coordination Framework“ and others abstained. As a result, the quorum was not reached for the second time and the vote was adjourned to 30 March, 2022.

Abbas al-Anbori and David Labude discuss the way forward ahead of the vote, as it seemed that the parliamentary meeting will not have quorum for the third time, because key political blocs apparently want to postpone it again in order to have more time for negotiations.