Members of winning bloc in Iraqi parliament polls resign

BAGHDAD－The Iraqi parliament speaker has approved the resignation of all lawmakers of the Sadrist Movement, the biggest winner in the Oct 10 elections, according to a video aired by the state-owned al-Iraqiya channel on Sunday.

The resignation came just after the Sadrist Movement's leader Moqtada al-Sadr, also a prominent Shiite cleric in Iraq, asked his bloc's members to resign from parliament to save the political process from an unknown fate, according to a written statement affixed with his seal and signature.

The Sadrist Movement was part of the tripartite Saving the Homeland alliance, which includes the Kurdistan Democratic Party, or KDP, led by Masoud Barzani, and the Sunni Sovereignty Alliance co-led by Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi.

The resignation is "a sacrifice from me for the sake of the homeland and the people to rid them of an unknown fate", said al-Sadr in his statement, noting that the KDP and Sovereignty Alliance are no longer allied with him.

On Thursday, al-Sadr threatened that his bloc would be in the parliamentary opposition or completely withdraw from the political process unless a national majority government was formed, while directing members of his bloc to prepare their resignations.

During the past few months, continuing disputes among the Shiite parties have hampered the formation of a new Iraqi government, as the parliament has been unable to elect a new president by a two-thirds majority of the 329-seat parliament under the constitution.

If elected, the president, whose tenure is limited to two four-year terms, will then appoint the head of the government, or the prime minister.

Al-Sadr had vowed to form a new national majority government from the winning parties in the elections after his followers took the lead with 73 seats.

Al-Sadr's pro-Iran rivals and some other parties, however, want to form a consensus government to include all political blocs, as in the case of all successive governments since 2003.

Any new Iraqi government faces myriad challenges.

The United Nations said about one-third of Iraq's population of 41 million now lives in poverty.

If the parliamentary impasse cannot be broken, new elections could follow. But that would itself require lawmakers to agree on dissolving parliament.

The UN envoy to Iraq, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, urged Iraqi politicians last month to end the deadlock, warning that "the streets are about to boil over".

Xinhua - Agencies