THE IRAQI JUDICIARY RESPONDS TO AL-SADR: DISSOLVING PARLIAMENT IS NOT WITHIN OUR POWERS

 

The Supreme Judicial Council in Iraq said, on Sunday, that its powers do not include the dissolution of parliament, which is the focus of the current political crisis in the country.

The statement of the Iraqi Judicial Council came in response to the calls of the leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada Al-Sadr, to dissolve the House of Representatives, as a way to solve the political crisis afflicting Iraq.

The statement said that the tasks of the Judicial Council "do not include any authority that allows the judiciary to interfere in the matters of the legislative or executive authorities, in the application of the principle of separation between the three legislative, executive and judicial powers stipulated in the constitution."

On the other hand, the Council affirmed that it agreed with Al-Sadr "in diagnosing the negative political reality the country is witnessing and the ongoing constitutional violations represented by the incomplete formation of the constitutional authorities by electing a President of the Republic and the Prime Minister and forming the government within the constitutional periods."

The Judicial Council considered the current political crisis "an unacceptable situation that must be addressed and not repeated."

Al-Sadr had issued a statement on August 10, published on his official account on the “Twitter” website, in which he called on the judicial authorities, specifically the Supreme Judicial Council, to “correct the course, especially after the end of the brief constitutional and other deadlines for Parliament to choose the President of the Republic and assign a Prime Minister to form a government ( ...)".

Iraq has witnessed an ongoing political crisis since the parliamentary elections held in October last year, but it escalated in the last two weeks, with Sadr's supporters announcing their open sit-in, which began in Parliament and then moved outside it in the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad.

Sadr's supporters are demanding the dissolution of parliament and early elections.

The crisis worsened, on Friday, after the coordination framework, the main opponent of Al-Sadr, announced the start of a sit-in for his supporters outside the Green Zone, as they demand the formation of a national service government.