Amid tension over the failure to form a new government, Iraq’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad al-Halbousi called for setting a date for early elections on Sunday.
The call came as Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi urged the country’s political parties to hold a new round of national dialogue on Monday to resolve Iraq’s months-long political crisis.
Al-Halbousi said in a statement that “setting a date for early parliamentary elections and provincial polls by the end of next year” should be on the agenda of the national dialogue.
“A new president and a government should be agreed upon by the people and political powers,” he stated.
Since the country’s last elections on October 10, 2021, tension has been running high across Iraq in recent weeks over the failure of Shia groups to agree on a new prime minister.
On Monday, when supporters of influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed the Republican Palace, where the government is seated in Baghdad after the firebrand leader said he was stepping down from politics, more than 30 protesters were killed.
