SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Secretary-General of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq movement on Friday said that all rival forces of Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shiite coordination framework agreed to hold early elections.
Qais Khazali, the Secretary-General of Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq movement confirmed that all the forces of the coordination framework agreed to hold early elections to satisfy the Sadrist movement’s “brothers”, the state news agency (INA) reported.
Khazali further said, determining a date for early elections depends on assessing the technical issues that the election commission needs.
Speaking about the coordination framework’s candidate for the premiership, he assumed that Mohammed Shia al-Sudani is ready to give up on his candidacy if the solution is his apology, according to the INA.
Sadr’s party, the Sadrist was the biggest winner in Iraq’s parliamentary election, which took place almost a year ago, in October, it claimed 73 seats in the parliament.
Sadr and his rival Shiite bloc, the Shiite Coordination Framework have been at odds since last year’s parliamentary elections.
The Sadrists won the largest share of seats in the October vote but failed to form a majority government.
MPs belonging to Sadr’s bloc later resigned from parliament and his supporters last month stormed the parliament building in Baghdad. He has demanded that parliament be dissolved and early elections held.
Tensions escalated sharply in late August when Sadr said he would quit politics, with his supporters storming an area in Baghdad’s high-security Green Zone in violence that killed 30 people.
Iraq’s political deadlock is now to its 11th month, the longest in the country since the 2003 United States-led invasion reset the political order.
The road map ahead is unclear as parliament has exceeded the constitutional timeline for forming a new government.
