Supporters of Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr pitch tents and prepare for a long sit-in against his rivals’ efforts to form a government.
Supporters of powerful Iraqi leader Muqtada al-Sadr have pitched tents and are preparing for a lengthy sit-in in Iraq’s parliament, deepening a months-long political standoff.
On Saturday, supporters of the al-Sadr brand entered the legislative chamber for the second time in days, after October elections failed to form a government.
“The protesters announce a sit-in until further notice,” al-Sadr’s movement said in a brief statement to reporters carried by the state news agency INA.
Nearly 10 months after elections in October, Iraq remains without a new government despite intense factional negotiations.
Government formation in the oil-rich country has involved complex negotiations since the 2003 US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.
Supporters of al-Sadr, who once led a militia against US and Iraqi government forces, oppose the election of a rival, pro-Iranian Shiite bloc as prime minister: Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.
The message is conventionally addressed to a figure in Iraq’s Shiite majority.
“We don’t want Mr. Sudani,” said one protester, Sattar al-Aliawi, a 47-year-old civil servant.
He said he was protesting against “a corrupt and incompetent government” and would “sleep here” in parliament gardens. “The people totally reject the parties that have ruled the country for 18 years,” he said.
Supporters of Muqtada al-Sadr raise his portraits inside the parliament [Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP]
On Sunday morning, protesters marked the Muslim month of Muharram with religious chants and communal meals.
“We expected the best, but we got the worst. The politicians currently in parliament have brought us nothing,” said Abdelwahab al-Jaafari, 45.
Volunteers distributed soup, boiled eggs, bread and water to the protesters.
Some spent the night inside the parliament with blankets spread on the marble floor. Others went to the gardens, on plastic mats under the palm trees.
Protesters rest inside the Iraqi parliament in the capital Baghdad [Sabah Arar/AFP]
Al-Sadr’s bloc emerged from October’s election as the largest parliamentary faction, but was still far from a majority, causing the country’s longest political vacuum since 2003.
In June, al-Sadr’s 73 lawmakers left their seats in a move seen as an attempt to pressure his rivals to speed up the formation of a government.
This made a pro-Iran bloc the largest in parliament, but there was still no agreement to name a new prime minister, president or cabinet.
Saturday’s demonstration came three days after crowds of al-Sadr supporters broke through the Green Zone and entered the legislature on Wednesday.
The blockade marks Iraq’s biggest crisis in years. In 2017, Iraqi forces, along with a US-led coalition and Iranian military support, defeated the ISIL (ISIS) group that had taken over a third of Iraq.
Two years later, Iraqis suffering from a lack of jobs and services took to the streets demanding an end to corruption, new elections and the removal of all parties, especially the powerful Shia groups, which have ruled the country since 2003
Al-Sadr continues to ride the wave of popular opposition to his Iranian-backed rivals, saying they are corrupt and serve the interests of Tehran, not Baghdad.