ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Prominent Shiite cleric and head of the Iraqi parliament’s largest bloc Muqtada al-Sadr on Thursday announced he will not run in the October election and withdrew his support for the current and upcoming governments.
“In order to preserve what is left of the nation and to save the nation that has been burnt by the corrupt and is still burning, I inform you that I will not be participating in the elections. For the nation is more important than all of that,” Sadr said in a televised speech.
“I announce that I am withdrawing my hand from all those who are working with this government, the current and the upcoming, even if they had allegiance to us, the family of Sadr,” he added.
Sadr’s announcement comes three months ahead of the parliamentary election and days after a deadly fire swept through a coronavirus ward at a Nasiriyah hospital, killing dozens and igniting public anger against the government.
“I am not one that runs from responsibility, but what is happening in Iraq is part of an evil international scheme to humiliate, subjugate, and burn the people, because they are afraid of the arrival of reformists who will clear out corruption for the love of their country. So let them take all the positions and leave the homeland for us,” Sadr said.
Sadr does not hold an elected position himself, but he leads the Sairoon coalition, parliament’s largest bloc. He was among the first people to speak up in January when the election was postponed from June 6 to October 10, saying he would not accept any further delay. “I will not allow another postponement of the elections as long as I live,” he said at the time.
In February, he welcomed international supervision of the election.
More than 24 million people have been registered to vote in the elections, including 120,000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
In an attempt to prevent the allegations of fraud that surrounded the 2018 vote, the electoral commission said earlier this month that, immediately after casting a ballot, voters' biometric cards will be rendered invalid and taken.
Iraqi President Barham Salih has suggested the electoral commission announce results within 24 hours of polls closing via a live broadcast. He also proposed banning the use of voter cards that do not include biometric data.
Early elections were one of the key demands of protesters who took to the streets to condemn government corruption and lack of services across central and southern Iraq in October 2019.
