SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Iraq’s top Shia cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani on Wednesday called for wide participation in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
Al-Sistani said elections must be held away from external interferences and conducted in a “reassuring atmosphere” far from the influence of money and illegal weapons — an apparent reference to powerful Iranian-backed militias who maintain strong influence over Iraq, his office said in a statement.
He encouraged all eligible Iraqis to participate “consciously and responsibly in the upcoming elections, although it is not without some shortcomings.”
He said Iraqis must take advantage of this important opportunity to shape their country’s future and “bring about a real change in the administration of the state and remove corrupt and incompetent hands.”
“Make a good choice, otherwise the failures of the previous parliaments and the governments emanating from them will be repeated,” he said.
Iraq is scheduled to hold early elections on October 10, in response to the anti-government protests against corruption and lack of public services.
The previous parliamentary elections in Iraq were held on May 12, 2018, and the next elections were originally scheduled to take place in 2022.
Last month, head of commissioners’ council of the electoral commission judge Jaleel Adnan Khalaf said he had invited more than 75 countries and international organizations to observe the elections, according to al-Monitor.
Member of the electoral commission’s media office Imad Jamil Mohsen said up to 150 U.N. observers and more than 70 EU spectators would monitor the elections in Iraq.
