Iraqi Protesters Storm Parliament for 2nd Time in Week

Hundreds of Iraqi supporters of populist Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed Baghdad’s parliament to protest the failure to form a government, months after national elections in October 2021. It is the second time in a week that the protesters have entered the legislative chamber and occupied parliament. Iraq’s sitting Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi directed ordered security forces to protect the demonstrators and asked them to keep their protest peaceful; this, after Iraqi security forces used tear gas and other dispersal methods. There were no demonstrators in the chamber at the time of the protest.

This is Iraq’s longest post-election deadlock, as infighting among Shi’ite and Kurdish groups prevent the formation of a government, stalling reforms needed as the country struggles to recover from decades of conflict.

The paralysis has left Iraq without a budget for 2022, holding up spending on much-needed infrastructure projects and economic reform.

Last month Sadr’s 73 lawmakers resigned from the Council of Representatives, Iraq’s parliament to help bring about the establishment of a government. Al-Sadr wrote that the resignation was “a sacrifice from me for the sake of the homeland and the people to rid them of an unknown fate.”