BAGHDAD, Aug 13 (NNN-NINA) – Opponents of the powerful Shiite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, yesterday launched a sit-in outside the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, to counter an ongoing one, by al-Sadr’s followers that has lasted almost two weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The opponents, who are loyal to the Coordination Framework (CF), an umbrella group of Shiite parliamentary parties, demanded a rapid formation of a new government. They also urged the political parties, especially the Kurdish ones, to expedite the submission of a candidate for the post of president and prime minister.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, al-Sadr’s supporters continued their sit-in, in and outside the parliament building, demanding comprehensive reform of the political process and a fight against corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The protests began on Jul 30, when hundreds of al-Sadr’s followers broke into the parliament building in the Green Zone, and started an open sit-in, accusing the Shiite parties, who have led the government since 2003, of corruption and poor governance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Aug 3, al-Sadr called for dissolving the parliament and holding early elections, urging his followers to continue their sit-in until their demands are met.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The CF became the largest alliance in the Iraqi parliament, after al-Sadr ordered his followers in the Sadrist Movement, the biggest winner of the elections held on Oct 10, 2021, with 73 seats, to withdraw from parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the past months, the continued disputes among the Shiite parties have hampered the formation of a new Iraqi government, making it unable to elect a new president by a two-thirds majority of the 329-seat parliament, under the constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If elected, the president will appoint the prime minister, nominated by the largest alliance in parliament, now the CF, to form a new government, that would rule the country for the next four years.– NNN-NINA <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BAGHDAD, Aug 13 (NNN-NINA) – Opponents of the powerful Shiite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr, yesterday launched a sit-in outside the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad, to counter an ongoing one, by al-Sadr’s followers that has lasted almost two weeks. The opponents, who are loyal to the Coordination Framework (CF), an umbrella group of Shiite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":187397,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217,194,297],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187395"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=187395"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187396,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187395\/revisions\/187396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/187397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=187395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=187395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=187395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}