“The current government must work hard urgently to implement citizens’ demands to reduce their suffering and misery,” Sistani said in his Friday sermon, via his representative, in the holy city of Karbala.
“He (the new prime minister) must launch a relentless war against the corrupted and those who protect them,” he added, according to Reuters.
Protests have swept southern Iraq in recent weeks, beginning in Basra where citizens have seen few benefits from the oil wealth the province creates. Up to 14 people have been killed nationwide, according to Iraq’s human rights commission, and hundreds more injured and imprisoned.
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has promised to address the “just demands” of protesters by creating jobs and speeding up infrastructure projects.
The intervention from Sistani, whose words are strictly followed by many Shiite followers and politicians, will pile yet more pressure on the embattled prime minister.
Abadi is not guaranteed to stay on as prime minister. His Nasr, or Victory, alliance came third in Iraq’s May 12 parliamentary election, despite western backing and polls predicting he’d win by a narrow margin.
The list to emerge with the most seats was the Sayirun alliance of communists, secularists, and followers of the US-critic and firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr – who courts huge support among Iraq’s poor Shiite communities.
A close second went to the Iran-backed Fatih (Conquest) alliance, while the State of Law coalition of former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was pushed into fourth.
These Shiite lists have so far failed to overcome their differences to form a coalition.
The creation of a new government hinges to a great extent on who the Kurdish parties choose to work with. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), traditionally the two largest Kurdish parties, together hold 43 seats. They plan to collaborate in talks with the Iraqi parties to form a governing collation.
Sadr has called for government formation talks to be postponed until the demands of protesters are met.
