Article Author:
Associated Press
Samiya Club
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's influential Shia cleric, whose supporters stormed Baghdad's parliament earlier this month, The building, which has been holding a sit-in outside since then, stepped up his demands on Wednesday and issued a veiled threat of renewed violence. On Twitter, the judiciary said it had one week to dissolve the legislature. Al Sadr has previously called for the dissolution of parliament and early elections, but this time he has set a deadline.
Experts are divided on whether Sadr's claims have a legal basis. He won the largest share of seats in last October's elections, but failed to form a majority government that eliminated rivals allied with Iran.
Sadr called his followers "revolutionaries" and said that "they would take a different stance" if his demands were not met, hinting that the protests could escalate.
The judiciary has previously said that it has no constitutional right to dissolve parliament and only members of parliament can vote to dissolve parliament. Beyond the constitutional timeline to form, it's not clear what happens next.
Sadr's political rivals in the Coordination Framework, an alliance of Iran-backed political parties, have previously said parliament must be convened to dissolve.
Last week, thousands of al-Sadr supporters stormed the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the Iraqi parliament, government buildings and foreign embassies. did. They ran amok and occupied Parliament, after which all sessions of Parliament were canceled until further notice. The takeover also effectively halted efforts by the Coordinating Framework to form the next government after al-Sadr failed.
Iraq's political stalemate, now in its 10th month, is the longest in the country since the 2003 US-led invasion reset the political order.
In the parliamentary takeover, Sadr's followers did not go so far as to take over the Judiciary Council building next door - an act many see as a coup d'état, in which the judiciary took control of the country's highest ranks. because it is the legal authority of
