ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraq’s ruling Shiite Coordination Framework has narrowed down its possible candidates for the country’s next prime minister to three names, a member of the faction told The New Region on Tuesday.

Leaders of the Coordination Framework held their regular session on Monday, during which they made “significant progress in the discussion of selecting the new prime minister candidate,” according to a statement from the Shiite alliance, adding that the leaders “agreed on specific deadlines for finalizing the necessary procedures.”

“The important development in the file of choosing the prime minister candidate is, firstly, that the names have been reduced to three figures, including current Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al-Sudani, and secondly, setting a date for settling the choice by consensus among all the leaders of the framework,” Rahim al-Aboudi, a member of the Framework, told The New Region.

Aboudi said that there is a “very high possibility” that the candidate will be agreed upon during the faction’s upcoming meeting next Monday.

The New Region also reached out to sources within the Victory Alliance, another component of the Framework, who confirmed Aboudi’s comments.

The Coordination Framework, an umbrella bloc of Shiite parties, was formed in 2022, mainly to challenge Muqatada al-Sadr’s attempts at forming a national majority government. The Framework nominated Sudani for prime minister in October 2022, following the withdrawal of Sadr from the political process, and has been the main power-holder in the Iraqi government since.

The Framework shortlisted nine candidates for the next prime minister following the November elections, which included current Prime Minister Sudani, former premiers Nouri al-Maliki and Haider al-Abadi, National Security Advisor Qassim al-Araji, and intelligence chief Hamid al-Shatri.

Sudani’s Reconstruction and Development Coalition emerged as the main party in the country in the November elections after securing 46 seats, while Maliki’s State of Law Coalition won 29 seats, placing third.