ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraq’s ruling Shiite Coordination Framework is set to hold a “decisive” meeting on Monday to select a candidate for Iraq’s prime minister position, amid ongoing divisions in the leading Shiite factions, an official within the Framework told The New Region on Sunday.

The Monday meeting “will be decisive once and for all in selecting the prime ministerial figure,” Victory Alliance spokesperson Salam al-Zubaidi stated.

The Framework’s previous meetings witnessed “major and numerous shifts,” according to Zubaidi, who noted that due to internal disagreements the selection process has reached “near stalemate” as “half of the Framework supports one figure and the other half supports another.”

In statements to local media, sources from the Shiite umbrella group report that the competition is now between incumbent Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani and former premier Nouri al-Maliki, while some float the idea of a “compromise” nominee that is accepted by all.

A new mechanism is set to be introduced in the upcoming meeting to resolve the election deadlock, Zubaidi claimed, noting that “it is not unlikely that the Coordination Framework will move toward a compromise candidate from among the nine names nominated by the framework, and perhaps even a name from outside those names.”

Hassan Fadam, leader of the National Wisdom (Hikma) Movement, asserted that the upcoming meeting will further narrow the candidate list for the position and expedite the finalization of the election process.

However, Saif al-Mansouri, a member of the Reconstruction and Development Alliance, told The New Region earlier on Sunday that reports about a new candidate for the prime ministership is “not true,” confirming that “Sudani remains the strongest and closest candidate within the Framework and enjoys clear support based on the stability and achievements made during the past period.”

Even if an agreement was reached on Monday, the selected candidate will not be announced until after the position of Iraq’s president is finalized, which the spokesperson explains is to “prevent that figure from being politically burned or exposed to political or popular reactions.”

He added that current reports circulating online regarding the agreement on a candidate are “incorrect and mere speculation, and the framework itself does not yet know who the next prime minister will be.”

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.