Al-Sadr demands the dissolution of the Iraqi parliament before the end of next week

The leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, on Wednesday demanded the Iraqi judiciary to dissolve parliament before the end of next week, stressing that his supporters will continue their sit-in in the vicinity of the parliament inside the Green Zone in central Baghdad.

Thousands of al-Sadr's supporters had stormed the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad and took control of the parliament building as his opponents sought to form a government.

Al-Sadr raised the level of pressure on his opponents, relying on his ability to mobilize the street, calling on them last week to dissolve parliament and hold early elections.

His opponents, in the coordination framework, accepted the dissolution of Parliament on conditions, while one of them demanded the reconvening of the parliament to consider the issue of its dissolution.

But al-Sadr demanded, on Wednesday, in a tweet, to resort to the judiciary to dissolve parliament, from which his bloc's deputies withdrew in June, saying that the political blocs are "adherent to quotas and persistence in corruption" and "will not succumb to the people's demand to dissolve parliament."

Al-Sadr called on "the competent judicial authorities, especially the head of the Supreme Judicial Council" to intervene and "correct the course, especially after the expiry of the brief constitutional and other deadlines for Parliament to choose a president of the republic and assign a prime minister to form a government."

Al-Sadr added that the judiciary "must dissolve parliament after these constitutional violations ... within a period not exceeding the end of next week ... and assign the President of the Republic to set a date for conditional early elections," stressing that he will announce these conditions later.

"During this, the revolutionaries will continue their sit-ins," he said, but "they will have another position if the people fail again."

Article 64 of the Iraqi constitution stipulates that the Parliament shall be dissolved by “an absolute majority of its members, at the request of one-third of its members, or at the request of the Prime Minister and with the approval of the President of the Republic.”

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