BAGHDAD, Apr 1 (NNN-NINA) – Iraq’s prominent Shiite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, whose Sadrist Movement was the biggest winner in the elections, said yesterday, he gave his political rivals about 40 days to form a new government.
“Here I am giving the blocking third (his political rivals) an opportunity to negotiate with all the blocs except the Sadrist bloc, to form a national majority government,” al-Sadr said.
He said, he gave a roughly 40-day period for political opponents in the Iraqi Coordination Framework, an umbrella group of Shiite parties rejecting the election’s results, to negotiate on forming a new government.
The negotiating period would start from the first day of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, which falls tomorrow, to the ninth of the following month of Shawwal, in the Islamic Calendar.
However, al-Sadr confirmed he would not give up his right to nominate a prime minister for the new government.
On Wednesday, the Iraqi parliament failed to hold a session for the third time, to elect a new president, after failing to reach a quorum of two-thirds of the parliament’s 329 members, amid ongoing political disputes.
The Sadrist Movement took the lead by winning 73 seats out of the 329-seat parliament in the elections held on Oct 10, 2021.– NNN-NINA
