Iraq’s Supreme Federal Court ruled on Tuesday that no more candidates for president can be nominated.
The decision came after MPs failed to meet the deadline to elect the new President of the Republic.
Government formation in Iraq has stalled amid deepening political deadlock, months after the national election in October.
The court said a move to introduce new candidates to the race would be “unconstitutional”.
Last month, the legislative body approved a list of 25 candidates for the presidency, including current President Barham Salih.
It was supposed to vote on the names on February 7 but the bigger political parties boycotted the session due to divisions on the nominees.
The next day, Parliament Speaker Mohammed Al Halbousi reopened registration for candidacy.
“There is no provision in the constitution which gives the Parliament’s presidency the right to reopen nomination of the president post,” the court said in its ruling.
It is allowed to reopen registration only after a decision is approved inside the Parliament.
Although the position of president is largely ceremonial, the role must be filled as one of the constitutionally mandated steps for the formation of a new government.
The four-year post is usually held by a member of Iraq's Kurdish minority, although this is based on an informal agreement. Kurdish rivals have yet to agree on one nominee to back.
Tuesday’s ruling cast further doubt on the process of forming the new government, more than four months after October's national elections.
Parliament did not specify the mechanism of approving the decision to reopen registration, or the required quorum to pass it.
The two leading Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, have been at loggerheads over nominees.
The KDP, which swept the polls in the Kurdistan Region, winning 31 seats in the 329-seat Parliament, is keen to hold on to the post, nominating former foreign and finance minister Hoshyar Zebari.
The presidency benefits the KDP because the party manages the foreign relations of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, while the Iraqi president often represents the nation on official visits.
While the Kurdistan Alliance is led by KDP rivals the PUK, the latter won only 17 seats and has nominated Mr Salih for another term.
This month, the Federal Supreme Court removed Mr Zebari over corruption and mismanagement-related accusations while in office. He has denied the charges, which he claims are politically motivated.
Then KDP then put forth a new candidate but the process has since stalled, caught up in a deadlocked government formation process.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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