Since October 2021 parliamentary elections, the political leaders have been unable to form a government. Iraq’s political chaos was aggrieved when the radicals, especially the supporters of Shia leader Muqtada Al-Sadr who is one of the most powerful people in the country, stomped on the parliament to protest against corruption on Wednesday.
Politicians being unable to form a government
Since October 2021 elections were held in Iraq, the discussion has started to form a new government. Al-Sadr won 74 seats, making it the largest section in the 329-seat parliament. Al-Sadr committee to form a “national majority government” which will represent different sects and ethnicities, such as Sunni Muslims and Kurds. Here he slightly ignored the Shia Coordination Framework, including an old rival, former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Al-Sadr went down the lane of alienating groups like Fatah, other than defending his Sunni and Kurdish allies. Some of the pro-Iran militia groups warned of intense violence if Sunni and Kurdish groups joined al-Sadr.
Parliament being stormed.
The radicals that were in thousands stomped on the parliament because they oppose the election of a rival candidate for prime minister that is backed by Iraq.
Marsin Alshamary, a researcher, told Al Jazeera that “Muhammad Shia Al-Sudani, a former minister and ex-provincial governor, just represents a very convenient excuse for Muqtada al-Sadr to voice his displeasure with the entire Coordination Framework and the political system in Iraq. He would have done this if anyone else were nominated. Al-Sudani represents one of the least controversial figures from the Coordination Framework”
The radicals stomped the parliament by carrying the portraits of al-Sadr and shouted different phrases to support him. They only left the parliament and went home when al-Sadr finally asked them to leave by putting up a tweet on Twitter reassuring them that their message has been heard.
Al-Sadr withdrawing from the parliament
Al-Sadr finally withdrew his parliamentary block after almost eight months of persistent failure to form a government. He also ordered the 74 Sadrist Movement legislators to resign.
Al-Sadr has been saying for months that he is against both the Iranian and American influence in Iraq, but not everyone agrees that he’s truly an anti-Iranian. Alshamary said that “The truth is in Iraq, there is not a single political party, whether Shia, Sunni or Kurd, that does not have some kind of tie with Iran”
If the “national majority government” had been formed, it would have struck a huge blow to Iran’s political influence in Iraq, because Iran usually supports the Shia community.
despite of al-Sadr winning the elections, Iraqi law still demands a majority of two-thirds to select a president, which al-Sadr did not have. To form a government, it is compulsory to elect a president first.
With the resignation of al-Sadr’s bloc, the path for the Coordination Framework has opened up. By law, if an MP resigns, the empty place would be taken up by the second-placed candidate. All this chaos can lead to more protests over the summer.
Al-Sadr made sure that even if his supporters are not present in the parliament, he cannot be ignored by Iraq’s politicians. Also, he can converge the demonstrators to put his point aside.
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