IRAQ: AL SADR’S BLOC TO BOYCOTT PARLIAMENT SESSION TO ELECT PRESIDENT

Sat 05 February 2022:

The coalition of Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr said on Saturday that it will boycott a parliamentary session to elect a new president of Iraq.

“We decided to freeze negotiations with political blocs regarding the formation of the next government until further notice,” Hassan al-Adhari, the head of the Sadrist bloc, said in a press conference in Baghdad.

The Iraqi Parliament is scheduled to hold a special session on Monday to elect a new president from among 25 candidates.

Incumbent President Barham Salih, of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and the candidate of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Hoshyar Zebari, are the frontrunners for the post.

“The Sadr’s bloc members will not attend the parliamentary session to elect the president of the republic except for first deputy speaker of parliament, Hakim al-Zamili,” al-Adhari said, without giving further details.

The decision to boycott the session on Monday comes amid serious divisions among Shia blocs over the formation of the next Iraqi administration.

Al-Sairoon Sadr’s alliance won the most seats in the 329-member parliament in the Oct. 10 elections, with 73, followed by Mohammed al-Taqaddum Halbousi’s (progress) bloc with 37.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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