BAGHDAD, Aug 11 (NNN-NINA) – Iraqi powerful Shiite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, yesterday, called on the country’s judiciary, to dissolve parliament by the end of next week, due to the expiry of the constitutional deadlines for the formation of a new government.
Parliament does not need to convene to dissolve itself, because some parliamentary blocs adhere to the quota system, continue to engage in corruption, and refuse to bow to the people’s demand to dissolve parliament, Al-Sadr tweeted.
Al-Sadr said that, he still has faith in the Iraqi judiciary to dissolve parliament, adding, he is “confident that many judges are with the people and reform.”
He also called on the Iraqi president to set a date for early elections.
The sit-in demonstrations would continue, Al-Sadr confirmed, adding, “the revolutionaries (protesters) will have another stance, if they (political blocs) disappoint the people again.”
On Aug 3, al-Sadr called for dissolving the parliament and holding early elections, urging his followers to continue their open sit-in, to reform the political process in the country.
Hundreds of al-Sadr followers began on Jul 30, a sit-in until further notice, in part of the parliament building, inside the Green Zone in Baghdad, accusing the government of failing to run the state, due to corruption and poor governance since 2003.
Al-Sadr’s opponents in the Coordination Framework (CF), an umbrella group of Shiite parliamentary parties, became the largest alliance in the Iraqi parliament, after al-Sadr ordered his followers in the Sadrist Movement to withdraw from parliament, after they became the biggest winners in the elections held on Oct 10, 2021, with 73 seats.
During the past months, the continued disputes among the Shiite parties have hampered the formation of a new Iraqi government, making it unable to elect a new president by a two-thirds majority of the 329-seat parliament under the constitution.
If elected, the president will appoint a prime minister, nominated by the largest alliance in parliament, now the CF, to form a new government, that would rule the country for the coming four years.
