Sadr, Amiri announce political pact
BAGHDAD: Nationalist cleric Moqtada alSadr and Iranian-backed militia chief Hadi al-Amiri, who won first and second place respectively in Iraq’s May parliamentary election, announced on Tuesday an alliance between their political blocs.
The move announced from the Shia holy city of Najaf is the first serious step towards forming a new government after weeks of negotiations between parties. It comes exactly one month after an election marred by historically low turnout and fraud allegations.
The two Shia figures said they would keep the door open for other winning blocs to join them in forming a new government.
“Our meeting was a very positive one, we met to end the suffering of this nation and of the people. Our new alliance is a nationalist one,” Mr Sadr said.
Mr Sadr and Mr Amiri are strange bedfellows.
The cleric, who once led violent campaigns against the US occupation that ended in 2011, has emerged as a nationalist opponent of Shia parties allied with Iran and as a champion of the poor.
He backed in the election the Saeroon list composed of his followers, the Communist Party, and other secular candidates.
Mr Amiri, a fluent Farsi speaker, is Iran’s closest ally in Iraq, having spent two years in exile there during the era of Saddam Hussein.
The Fatih alliance he led in the poll comprised political groups tied to Iran-backed Shia militias who helped government forces dislodge the Islamic State from the third of Iraq they seized four years ago.
“Fatih and Saeroon announce forming the nucleus of the largest bloc and call on all winning blocs to participate in this alliance under a government programme agreed upon by all that is suitable to face the challenges, crises, and problems facing Iraq,” a Fatih spokesman said.
The alliance, which together has 101 seats, 64 short of the majority needed to form a government, came hours after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, whose own bloc came third, urged politicians to keep talking over a government formation despite an impending nationwide manual vote recount.
Parliament mandated the recount after Mr Abadi said a government report showed there were serious violations.
A few days later a storage site housing half of Baghdad’s ballot boxes caught fire, raising tensions and prompting some to call for the election to be repeated.
Mr Abadi said on Tuesday he opposed a repeat, echoing the stances of Mr Sadr and Mr Amiri, and warned that anyone who tried to sabotage the political process would be punished.
He may yet secure a second term as a compromise candidate if he joins his blocs with Mr Sadr and Mr Amiri.
“The matter is exclusively in the hands of the judiciary, not politicians. The government and parliament don’t have the power to cancel the election,” Mr Abadi said of a repeat.