Protesters storm Iraqi parliament building – NRC

Hundreds and possibly thousands of protesters stormed the Iraqi parliament building in Baghdad on Wednesday during the biggest protest since last year’s elections. This was reported by international news agencies on Wednesday. Activists are speaking out against the nomination of a pro-Iranian former minister as a candidate for prime minister.

Most of the protesters are supporters of the influential Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr. His political movement won 73 seats in last year’s election, making it the largest party in the 329-seat parliament. Yet the country has been waiting for the appointment of a new prime minister and president for ten months. After failing to form a majority government, al-Sadr withdrew all members of his party from parliament last month.

That a pro-Iranian political bloc has put Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, a Shia rival to al-Sadr, forward as prime minister candidate this week has thrown critics the wrong way. “We will demonstrate until corrupt politicians and alliances supported by Iran are gone,” a protester told Reuters news agency on Wednesday afternoon. Shortly afterwards, he and other activists managed to reach the highly secured so-called Green Zone in Baghdad, where government offices and foreign embassies are located. Riot police fired tear gas, but were unable to stop them.

‘Sudani, go!’

Once inside the parliament building, protesters walked on tables, waved Iraqi flags and chanted: “Sudani, go!” There were no parliamentarians in the building at the time. Interim Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi on Wednesday evening called on protesters to “keep calm and restraint” and demand that the protesters immediately withdraw from the area.

In the meantime, there is also no agreement on the appointment of a president. Since the ouster of dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003, the prime minister has been Shia, the president Kurdish and the speaker of parliament has been Sunni. But disagreements between Kurdish parties hinder the selection of a president, who ultimately must appoint a new prime minister.

In 2016, al-Sadr supporters stormed parliament in a similar fashion. They staged a sit-in and demanded political reforms after then Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi announced a reshuffle of his cabinet.