Sixty-four new deputies were sworn in on Thursday June 22 in the Iraqi Parliament to replace the resigning elected officials of leader Moqtada Sadr, making a coalition of pro-Iran Shiite parties the most important force in the hemicycle, according to a count of the AFP.
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Iraq has been in the political doldrums since the October 2021 elections. The majority Shiite parties have failed to provide the country with a new head of government.
The crisis deepened on June 12 with the resignation of the 73 elected members of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr's current.
It thus meant protesting against inertia.
Following this collective resignation, the candidates who came second in the legislative elections inherited the seats left vacant.
Moqtada Sadr, big winner
In total, 64 of these new parliamentarians were sworn in during an extraordinary session on Thursday, noted an AFP correspondent.
Of the 73 vacant seats, about 40 went to members of the Coordination Framework, according to a calculation made by AFP.
This coalition would now have around 130 seats out of the 329 in the Assembly.
No official figures have been released by the services of the Parliament.
This relative majority gives the Coordination Framework additional weight in the process of appointing the new prime minister that Iraq has been waiting for since the legislative elections more than eight months ago.
The inevitable Moqtada Sadr was the big winner of this election.
He then engaged in a showdown with his adversaries in the Coordination Framework, who represent the other pole of Iraqi political Shiism.
"Instability"
Allied with Sunni and Kurdish forces, Moqtada Sadr intended to break the tradition which wanted all Shiite forces to be involved in a “
consensus government
”.
He wanted a “
majority government
” that would have pushed back the Coordination Framework in opposition.
In vain.
But the resignation of its deputies does not mean a complete withdrawal of Moqtada Sadr, believes political scientist Hamzeh Hadad who warns against "
instability, especially if the Sadrists do not obtain positions within the executive
" .
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For lack of a clear majority and consensus, Parliament has failed three times since the beginning of the year to organize the election of the President of the Republic, the first stage before the designation of the Prime Minister and the formation of the government.
All the deadlines set by the Constitution have been exceeded.
