Al-Sadr had urged lawmakers in his bloc to resign to make room for a new government.
Iraqi lawmakers from Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s bloc resigned on Sunday, a parliamentary spokesman said, a measure apparently designed to end eight months of political paralysis.
“We have reluctantly accepted the requests of our brothers and sisters, representatives of the al-Sadr bloc, to resign,” Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halboussi said on Twitter after receiving the resignation letters of the 73 lawmakers.
Al-Sadr on Thursday urged members of his bloc, the largest in parliament, to prepare resignation documents with the aim of breaking the parliamentary stalemate and creating space for the establishment of a new one. government.
Baghdad’s parliament has been in turmoil since the October general election, and intense negotiations between political factions have failed to forge a majority in support of a new prime minister to succeed Mustafa al-Kadhimi.
Al-Sadr said in a statement that his request to lawmakers to resign was “a sacrifice” [File: Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP]
Iraqi lawmakers have already passed all deadlines to establish a new constitution-based government, prolonging the country’s war-torn political crisis.
Al-Sadr, a populist who has positioned himself as a staunch opponent of both Iran and the United States, said in a statement that his call on lawmakers to resign was “a sacrifice on my part because the country and people free them from unknown destiny ”.
What happens next?
It was not immediately clear how the resignation of the largest bloc in parliament would take place. A veteran Iraqi politician has expressed concern that the resignations could wreak havoc on the country.
“Sadr has come to the point where he has accepted the bitter reality that it is almost impossible to form a government away from Iran-backed groups,” said Ali Moussawi, a former lawmaker and political researcher at Baghdad University.
Although his withdrawal is a setback, al-Sadr, whose supporters fought the U.S. occupation forces, still has firepower with hundreds of thousands of supporters who can protest, Moussawi added.
Under Iraqi law, if a seat in parliament becomes vacant, it will be replaced by the candidate with the second highest number of votes in his or her constituency.
This would benefit al-Sadr’s opponents of the so-called Coordination Framework, a coalition led by Shiite-backed parties backed by Iran, and its allies, which Al-Sadr is unlikely to accept.
There are already concerns that stagnation and tension could escalate and provoke street protests by al-Sadr supporters, turning into violence between them and rival armed groups.
Al-Sadr has repeatedly alluded to the capabilities of his militia, Saraya Salam, which recently opened its doors to recruits in the provinces of Babylon and Diyala.