Shia cleric urges Iraq blocs to stop fighting for power

By Ibrahim Saleh

BAGHDAD

Influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Monday called on Iraqi political groups to abstain from fighting for power.

In a statement, al-Sadr expressed his “discontent” with the deteriorating political, security and economic conditions in the country.

“Iraq is full of the poor, unprivileged, orphans, injured, widows, elders and handicapped,” he said. “Iraq is living without water, electricity, agriculture, industry, money, infrastructure or services.”

The Shia cleric said Iraq was falling “into danger” amid controversy over the results of last month’s parliamentary election, in which al-Sadr’s Sairoon coalition won most seats.

“Hasn’t time come yet for us to stand together for building and reconstruction, instead of burning the ballot boxes or re-holding the election for the sake or one seat or two?” al-Sadr asked.

On Sunday, a huge fire broke out in the largest storage space of ballot boxes in the capital, Baghdad, notably, before the start of the manual recount, which was expected to begin later this week.

Last week, the Iraqi parliament adopted a resolution for a manual recount of votes in the May 12 election.