Home » Mass resignation from the Iraqi parliament – Zuhair al Jezairy

Mass resignation from the Iraqi parliament – Zuhair al Jezairy

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Mass resignation from the Iraqi parliament – Zuhair al Jezairy

The dominant political forces in Iraq are still bewildered by the last political week. Out of 329 deputies, 73 resigned from parliament. It was the most surprising move by Muqtada al Sadr, eight months before the elections on 10 October 2021. The majority of politicians are used to Al Sadr’s sudden stances. Four times his representatives announced his retirement from politics and on three other occasions he himself had renounced politics for religion.

This time, however, it is different. The collective resignation, approved directly by the president of parliament, embarrassed all of his allies in the Save the Fatherland coalition. Opponents of the Coordination Framework block were also very critical: after organizing two urgent meetings in a week, they sent three delegates to persuade Al Sadr to retrace his steps, always meeting his rejection.

This maneuver comes after eight months of political stalemate in which it was impossible to form a majority government. Al Sadr had already announced two months ago that he would switch to the opposition, asking his opponents for the Coordination Framework (which includes the Shiite blocs, in particular the rule of law coalition led by former Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki and the Al Fatah, representing the popular mobilization forces loyal to Iran) to form the government.

The new balances
With the withdrawal of its parliamentarians, the balance of forces in parliament was reversed: the Triple Alliance and its allies (Saving the homeland) were reduced to 98 deputies. Together, the Coordination Framework bloc, the Alliance for (Sunni) Sovereignty and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan have 178 MPs. While neutral or opposition forces occupy 53 seats.

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The problem is that none of the three blocks is able to take a step forward. They know that Al Sadr with his initiative starts from a position of strength, because the religious leader does not rely only on his numbers in parliament, but can also count on his vast following. If his followers take to the streets they can paralyze any future government. In addition, his movement can also count on a powerful and well-armed militia, Saraya al Salam.

Al Sadr’s Sunni and Kurdish allies have not yet decided what to do, whether to stay in parliament or follow the example of the Sadrists by resigning from the assembly. In the second hypothesis, the number of withdrawn parliamentarians would amount to 155, thus the parliament would lose value and new elections would become inevitable. In any case, the losers of this scenario would be the supporters of Iran, in parliament and outside. Is this what Al Sadr wants?

(Translation by Francesco De Lellis)

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