SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraqi supreme Judicial Council rejected Sadr’s call to disband the Iraqi parliament in a statement on Sunday, saying it does not have that authority.
On Wednesday powerful Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called for the dissolution of parliament, and constitutional amendments. He has given the judiciary an end-of-the-week deadline to dissolve the legislature.
Sadr has also called for early elections after withdrawing his lawmakers from parliament in June.
The withdrawal was a protest against his failure to form a government with his Kurdish ally the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Sunnis, despite holding nearly a quarter of parliament and having enough allies to make up more than half the chamber.
Following Wednesday’s call from Sadr, the Iraqi Judicial Council rejected it and said there are only two ways to dissolve the Iraqi Council of Representatives. Either, by the two-thirds vote of the Council’s members or under the request of the Prime Minister and the consent of the President.
“There is no third way, no parties can resolve the political deadlock including Judicial if it contradicts the constitutions” the Iraqi Judicial Council replied to Sadr’s demand.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, the Supreme Judicial Council held its meeting regarding the call from Sadr.
“Incompletion of the constitutional entitlements including the presidential election and naming the prime minister amid the constitutional time frame, are ongoing cases of a constitutional violation and unacceptable, it needs immediate remedy,” the supreme judicial council in the statement said.
“The Supreme Judicial Council has not the authority to dissolve the Iraqi parliament,” It said on Sadr’s call for disbanding the parliament.
The deadlock between Sadr and his rivals has left Iraq without a government for a record time in the post-Saddam Hussein era.
More than 300 days have passed since the last election, the country has been without a president and prime minister because of the political deadlock, and Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi continues as the caretaker government.
