According to state media, an open sit-in protest started by supporters of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr inside the parliament on Saturday after they breached the building in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone.
Ibrahim al-Jabri, director of the Sadrist movement’s office, was quoted saying, “The open sit-in the parliament was people’s choice.”
Demonstrators from the Sadrist movement broke into the Green Zone in the capital Baghdad earlier on Saturday, protesting the nomination of Mohammed Shia’ Al-Sudani for the premiership.
According to the Iraqi Health Ministry, 60 protesters were injured in clashes with security forces.
A new government has not been formed since early parliamentary elections were held in October 2021 due to political differences.
In a new step towards ending the crisis that has been going on for more than eight months, the “Coordination Framework” alliance chose the 52-year-old al-Sudani as a candidate to head the next government on July 25.
As the protest movement and the Shiite Sadrist movement demanded the nomination of a figure without any governmental history, attitudes regarding al-Sudani’s candidacy were divided between supporters and opponents.
