UPDATE: Iraqi election winner asks Parliament to resume on Sunday, demands Abadi attend

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The leader of the coalition that won the contested national elections in Iraq on Thursday said the newly-sworn-in lawmakers must resume the inaugural session soon after parliament decided to suspend until Sept. 15.

Influential Shia cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, who led the Sairoon coalition to victory in the May 12 election, demanded the first session of Parliament, where lawmakers must elect a Speaker and deputies, resume on Sunday. 

Sadr said parliament should meet “at no later [date],” with the caretaker government’s prime minister and a number of ministers in attendance to “develop comprehensive and immediate solutions” to the ongoing crisis in the southern city of Basra.

The statement came as the country reels from the death of at least five protesters this week, and 30 more injured as people in Iraq’s southern Basra took to the streets over the lack of government services in the oil-rich province.

On Tuesday, the temporary leader of parliament, Mohammed Ali Zaini, suspended once more the first session of parliament and noted they would reconvene on Sep. 15 to elect a speaker.

In his Thursday speech, Sadr called on parliament to “assemble immediately and, in a session broadcast publicly through official channels, inform the people of the course of events [in Iraq] no later than Sunday.”

To “develop comprehensive and immediate solutions for the present and the future” for Basra, he added, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi “must attend the parliamentary session,” as well as the Governor of Basra, his deputies, the President of the Provincial Council of Basra, and the Ministers of Interior, Health, Water Resources, and Electricity.

In a statement immediately after Sadr’s call, Abadi affirmed his readiness to attend the session

Sadr warned that if a meeting was not held on the proposed date and if those figures were absent, they would have to “immediately leave office as if their mandate was terminated.”

In a tacit reference to Turkey and Iran, Sadr suggested that the government “cooperate” with neighboring countries through official delegations in order to achieve an understanding on increased water supplies.

The Shia cleric urged everyone to protect government institutions in Basra, especially ports and airports, from foreign interference.

“We must end informal interventions in Basra Province, especially the interventions of parties and militias, and even the Hashd al-Shaabi to maintain its reputation,” Sadr said.

Sadr is leading an alliance that includes the fourth place-holder in the election, Abadi, and is fiercely opposed to the coalition led by Iran-backed al-Fatih’s Hadi al-Amiri.

He added that unless “the parliamentary session is held on time,” then “we [his supporters] have a firm position [beyond imagination] and will shake the thrones of the corrupt, those with sectarian quotas, and those who do not respect the blood of the people or their livelihood and dignity.”

“We will never be complacent,” Sadr stated.

Editing by Nadia Riva