In an apparent bid to end eight months of political deadlock, lawmakers from Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s bloc resigned from Iraq’s parliament on Sunday.
Over the failure to form a new government in Iraq, Al-Sadr had urged members from his bloc, the biggest in parliament, to resign.
Hassan Al-Azari, the head of the parliamentary faction of the movement, submitted the letters of resignation of 75 deputies to Iraqi Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi, who approved and signed them, a short video posted on social media accounts affiliated with the Sadrist movement showed.
Al-Sadr’s cousin, Mohammad Jaafar al-Sadr, also withdrew from the candidacy, who was the alliance’s candidate for the Iraqi premiership.
On his social media, he announced, “I had accepted to be nominated for the national and reformist project of Muqtada al-Sadr. But it’s time to withdraw.”
A tripartite alliance with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led by Masoud Barzani and a coalition of Sunni parliamentary groups, the Sovereignty Alliance, was formed by Muqtada al-Sadr to form a government.
The Sadrist movement came in first in Iraq’s general elections held in October 2021, securing 75 seats in the 329-seat parliament. However, disagreements between the Shiite umbrella organization close to Iran and Sadr on the formation of the government continue.
A political paralysis in the country has emerged due to the current conflict between Shiite group and the inability to form a new government.
