BAGHDAD —
Iraq’s judiciary said Sunday it
lacks the authority to dissolve parliament as demanded by populist Shiite
Muslim cleric Moqtada Sadr, who is engaged in an escalating standoff with
political rivals.
اضافة اعلان
Followers of Sadr, in defiance of his
Shiite rivals
of the pro-Iran Coordination Framework, have been staging a sit-in protest at
Iraq’s parliament.
In the latest twist to the political turmoil, the
firebrand cleric has urged the judiciary to dissolve parliament by the end of
this week to pave the way for new legislative elections.
But the judiciary replied that “the
Supreme Judicial Council has no jurisdiction to dissolve parliament”, citing “the principle of a
separation of powers”.
Under the constitution, parliament can only be
dissolved by an absolute majority vote in the house, following a request by
one-third of deputies or by the prime minister with the approval of the
president.
Nearly 10 months on from the last elections, Iraq
still has no government, new prime minister, or new president, due to repeated
squabbles between factions over forming a coalition.
In the latest turmoil to strike the oil-rich but
war-scarred nation,
Sadr has called for “early democratic elections after a
dissolution of parliament”.
The Supreme Council said it agreed with Sadr’s
criticism of the system’s “failure to elect a president of the republic, a
prime minister, and the absence of a government formed within the
constitutional timeframe”.
“This is an unacceptable situation that must be
remedied,” it said.
The Coordination Framework opponents of Sadr
launched their own Baghdad sit-in on Friday, nearly two weeks after his
supporters stormed parliament and began an open-ended protest, first inside,
then outside the legislature.
The opposing encampments are the latest turn in a
standoff which has so far remained peaceful.
On Twitter, a close associate of Sadr, Saleh Mohamed
Al-Iraqi, said it was time to show “which of the two sides has the most
support” among the Iraqi people.
He called on Sadr’s supporters across the country to
rally in Baghdad for a “million-man demonstration,” without giving a date.
Sadr’s camp launched the sit-in after the
Coordination Framework nominated a candidate they saw as unacceptable for prime
minister.
The cleric’s bloc emerged from the October elections
as parliament’s biggest, but still far short of a majority.
In June, 73 of his lawmakers quit in an aborted bid
to break the months-long political logjam.
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