Baghdad provincial council head rejects call to freeze Iraq's governorate councils

BAGHDAD, Iraq — The head of the Baghdad Provincial Council, Ammar al-Hamadani, has issued a written response to a letter from lawmaker Mohammed Hadi al-Shammari calling for the freezing of Iraq's provincial councils, a message that circulated on social media. Al-Hamadani said governorate councils are constitutional bodies and that any dissolution or freeze would be unconstitutional. In his response, al-Hamadani reviewed the legal grounds cited in the request, noting that Article 20 of Provincial Law No. 21 of 2008 applies to a specific council and requires a request by one-third of its members and an absolute majority vote, along with a formal investigation proving serious misconduct, a constitutional violation or the loss of membership conditions. He added that Article 2 of the same law grants only oversight authority and does not contain provisions for dissolution or freezing. The council head pointed to Article 122 of the Iraqi Constitution, which designates provincial councils as financially independent bodies not subject to the supervision of any ministry and grants them the same legal protections as the three branches of government. He called for the rejection of al-Shammari's request and the opening of a disciplinary inquiry against the lawmaker in parliament, while reserving the right to pursue legal action against him in court.