Iraq..political stalemate and fears of a return to violence

Huda Jassim (Baghdad)

For a whole year, Iraq has been experiencing a stifling political crisis once morest the background of the results of the early Iraqi parliamentary elections, which took place on the tenth of October 2021 and showed the progress of the “Sadr Movement” led by Muqtada al-Sadr with 73 seats out of the total number of 329 seats in parliament.
On the tenth of October last year, millions of Iraqis went to vote in the fifth parliamentary elections since 2003, to elect a new parliament following a stormy popular protest movement that toppled former Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, with the participation rate reaching 44% of the total number of Iraqis. The Iraqis who have the right to vote amount to regarding 25 million voters, according to the statistics of the Independent High Electoral Commission in Iraq.
Since the first announcement of the results of the parliamentary elections, the “coordinating framework” forces, which lost the majority of their seats in these elections, have opposed these results and called on their masses for popular sit-ins at the gates of the government’s Green Zone, which continued until November 30 of the same year, following the High Commission responded to the demands of the forces The “coordinating framework” re-counted and sorted operations manually, which was already done and showed congruence in the results that kept the “Sadr movement” at the forefront.
Muqtada al-Sadr himself led rounds of negotiations that included all the winning blocs in the elections to form a national majority government that includes the top winners with a limited number of deputies from the “coordinating framework” blocs, which later culminated in the formation of a large parliamentary bloc from the “Sadr movement” and the “alliance of sovereignty” led by Muhammad al-Halbousi. And the Kurdistan Democratic Party led by Massoud Barzani.
The “coordinating framework” formed a current once morest the idea of ​​forming a national majority government, which included the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan Party and independent deputies supporting the demands of forming a national consensus government that follows the approach of the governments that were formed in Iraq following the electoral cycles since 2005.
This alliance, which was called the “blocking third”, worked to prevent the Iraqi parliament from holding its sessions to complete the formation of the political process in the country, which prompted Muqtada al-Sadr on June 12, 2022 for the resignation of all his deputies from the Iraqi parliament, which opened the doors for the “coordinating framework” to dominate the Iraqi parliament. The seats of the “Sadr movement” were issued by the parliament blocs with 130 deputies, and they later became the most numerous bloc in parliament, which opened the doors to unilaterally nominate the candidate to form the new Iraqi government.
The independents, who achieved more than 40 seats in the Iraqi parliament, were absent from the scene and did not constitute any force or any clear influence in the political scene. Rather, they became part of the crisis due to the dispersal of their ideas and the lack of unification of their positions towards the formation of the new Iraqi government, and thus their role was lost in light of the intensification of a state of political impasse.
In the middle of this year, Muqtada al-Sadr led the largest popular demonstrations in Iraq, represented by mass gatherings and the performance of the unified Friday prayers, which later culminated in the storming of the masses of the “Sadr movement” in the Green Zone and the control of the Iraqi parliament building in late July, following the “coordinating framework” announced the name Muhammad Shiaa al-Sudani is a candidate to form the new Iraqi government.
The sit-ins of al-Sadr’s followers reached their climax following battles erupted between the armed forces and al-Sadr’s followers, following they stormed the government headquarters that houses the offices of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi on July 29. It lasted for two days and left hundreds dead and wounded.
The armed battles did not stop until al-Sadr asked his supporters to withdraw and end the sit-in and fight inside the Green Zone, which has already been achieved.
The state of fighting between the security forces and the followers of the Sadrist movement forced the political forces to enter into national dialogues to resolve the crisis and address the political blockage, but it was not successful due to the Sadrist movement’s boycott of attending these sessions.

Kurdistan Parliament extends its legislative session for a year
The parliament of the Kurdistan region of Iraq announced, yesterday, the approval of a law extending its current fifth legislative session to the fall of next year, due to the inability to hold legislative elections on their scheduled date, the first of October.
The parliament said in a statement that this came during its session held yesterday, amid a boycott by some members.
The bill was approved by 80 parliamentarians out of 111 who voted in favor of the bill, and it was approved by the Presidency of Parliament following obtaining a majority.
According to the draft law presented by members of the Democratic Party, the National Union, the Movement for Change and others from the rest of the components, the current parliament will continue its work until the fall of next 2023. The draft also emphasizes in one of its articles the necessity of completing the legal, administrative and technical arrangements for holding fair legislative elections during this period.

Intensify the conversations
Ayat Al-Mudhaffar, a spokeswoman for the “Victory Alliance” coalition, said that all political blocs have become convinced of the necessity for the House of Representatives to exercise the functions for which it was elected, including oversight and legislation to run the country’s situation, taking into account the opposition and providing a safe environment for the demonstrators on the one hand, and public and private institutions. On the other hand.
In exclusive statements to Al-Ittihad, Al-Mudhaffar stressed the need to intensify dialogues between the political blocs to reach a new government capable of restoring confidence to the Iraqi people in the political process on the one hand, and on the other hand between the political parties through a realistic and moderate government program that moves the country from political blockage and a crisis of mistrust to Joining forces to achieve the aspirations of the people, protect the state and stabilize its stability.
Al-Mudhaffar affirmed the support of the “Victory Coalition” and its strong movement for rapprochement between the “coordinating framework” and the “Sadr movement” to reach a compromise solution that addresses the problem of delay in forming the government, provided that this government is supported by all parties, and does not express the breaking of wills that confirmed that The Victory Alliance will not be part of it.
In this context, the “State Administration” coalition held a meeting, which it described as “important” regarding developments in the political situation.
The meeting, which was held in the office of Ammar al-Hakim, head of the “Hikma Movement”, discussed developments in the Iraqi political arena, the continuation of the parliament’s work and the formation of the government.
The coalition renewed its readiness to open a serious dialogue with the “Sadr movement” to reach an understanding on the management of the next stage.