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Al-Sadr: The victory of reform is a victory for Iraq


yota691
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 Al-Najaf Al-Ashraf: Morning
 
The leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, considered the victory of reform a victory for Iraq.
Al-Sadr said in a televised speech yesterday evening, Monday: "Praise be to God, who cherished the reform with its largest bloc, an Iraqi bloc, neither eastern nor western, whose light shines from the land of Iraq, its people and its bounties."
He added, "This is your day, O people of Iraq, in which reform has triumphed. Today is the day of Iraq, determination and steadfastness, and the day of the people and the state," noting that "Iraq is the Iraq of reference, the wise, the wise, and the dignitaries. ".
He stressed that "there is no place for corruption and the corrupt in Iraq after today, and we will eliminate corruption with our blood if necessary, so come to a reform paper, in which there is no sharing of power over the interests of the people."
He pointed out that "all embassies are welcome unless they interfere in Iraqi affairs and form the government," noting that "any intervention will have a diplomatic, and perhaps popular response, because Iraq is for Iraqis only and we will not allow interference at all."
He called for "the necessity of restricting arms to the hands of the state and preventing their use outside this scope," explaining that "it is time for the people to live in peace, without occupation or terrorism." The leader of the Sadrist movement pledged that "from now on, the government or the parties will not have control over the money and bounties, but rather it is for the people, and the people's oil is for the people, and we will work to raise the level of the Iraqi dinar to be in the ranks of global currencies gradually."
He pointed out that "construction, industry, agriculture, education and health have a large share of the efforts of benefactors, with no difference between one governorate and another except in terms of need and the number of its residents.
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6 minutes ago, yota691 said:
 
 Al-Najaf Al-Ashraf: Morning
 
The leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, considered the victory of reform a victory for Iraq.
Al-Sadr said in a televised speech yesterday evening, Monday: "Praise be to God, who cherished the reform with its largest bloc, an Iraqi bloc, neither eastern nor western, whose light shines from the land of Iraq, its people and its bounties."
He added, "This is your day, O people of Iraq, in which reform has triumphed. Today is the day of Iraq, determination and steadfastness, and the day of the people and the state," noting that "Iraq is the Iraq of reference, the wise, the wise, and the dignitaries. ".
He stressed that "there is no place for corruption and the corrupt in Iraq after today, and we will eliminate corruption with our blood if necessary, so come to a reform paper, in which there is no sharing of power over the interests of the people."
He pointed out that "all embassies are welcome unless they interfere in Iraqi affairs and form the government," noting that "any intervention will have a diplomatic, and perhaps popular response, because Iraq is for Iraqis only and we will not allow interference at all."
He called for "the necessity of restricting arms to the hands of the state and preventing their use outside this scope," explaining that "it is time for the people to live in peace, without occupation or terrorism." The leader of the Sadrist movement pledged that "from now on, the government or the parties will not have control over the money and bounties, but rather it is for the people, and the people's oil is for the people, and we will work to raise the level of the Iraqi dinar to be in the ranks of global currencies gradually."
He pointed out that "construction, industry, agriculture, education and health have a large share of the efforts of benefactors, with no difference between one governorate and another except in terms of need and the number of its residents.

He singing a different tune to the music now, hummmm!

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Iraq election: Populist Shia cleric potential kingmaker after winning most seats

 

Muqtada al-Sadr’s Sadrist movement has secured more than 70 seats

Bel Trew
In Mosul
<p>Supporters of Sadr’s movement celebrate after preliminary results of Iraq’s parliamentary election were announced in Baghdad</p>

Supporters of Sadr’s movement celebrate after preliminary results of Iraq’s parliamentary election were announced in Baghdad

(REUTERS)
The party of Iraq’s influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has taken the most seats in Iraq’s national election, according to initial results and officials within the movement, making him a potential kingmaker after a vote marred by record low voter turnout.

The Sadrist movement, led by the populist cleric known for his insurgency against US forces in the mid-2000s, secured as many as 73 of the 329 member-parliament, a spokesperson for the movement told The Independent.

 

An official at Iraq’s electoral commission confirmed that the Sadrists had come first in the elections, but did not immediately confirm how many seats the party won as the count was incomplete.

 

The partial results indicated a Sunni coalition led by parliament speaker Mohamed al-Halbousi coming in second with around 38 seats.

But just one seat behind that was – the State of Law Coalition – led by former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, showing that the country’s Shia parties were poised once again to have an influential presence in the upcoming parliament.

Iraq’s Shia groups have long dominated the country’s political arena and steered government formation since the US-led invasion of 2003 that toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein and catapulted the Shia majority and the Kurds to power.

 

The Sadrist Movement is widely expected to steer the formation of the next government.

A spokesperson for Sadr’s office told The Independent that they believe they had taken at least 73 seats, with the majority being in  Baghdad.

“It is not quite as ambitious as we wanted it to be,” said the official, who asked for anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

 

“We were hoping for 85 seats, but still this is a good number,” he added.

Among the biggest losers, however, were the overtly pro-Iran groups. The Fatah Alliance of candidates representing mostly pro-Iran state-sanctioned militias may have secured as little as 14 seats, a third of the seats they took in the 2018 election.

 

They apparently struggled to rally support as they faced criticism for their close links to armed groups accused of killing some of the nearly 600 people in the country’s uprising in 2019 which sparked the early vote.

 

The elections took place seven months early following a key demand of the popular uprising which formed in protest against endemic corruption, soaring unemployment and a proliferation of armed groups. More than 600 people were killed over a few months as the rallies were brutally crushed.

The country’s prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi also agreed to push through new elections legislation which experts say was not perfect but loosened the main political parties’ stranglehold on the legislature by opening the door for independents to run.

“It looks like [Fatah] are being punished by their own constituency who haven’t shown up but also by people who criticised the groups in the PMF [militias] and the security forces responsible for crackdowns on protesters… crimes and intimidations,” said Sajad Jiyad, an Iraqi researcher in the Century Foundation think tank.

“It is a concern if Fatah decides to challenge election results or if they form an opposition, not within the framework of parliament if they decide to use protests that maybe could get violent,” Jiyad added.

Iraqi media reported on Monday that Fatah officials vowed to contest the results of the election and called for an urgent meeting, raising the spectre of messy weeks of political wrangling ahead.

Preliminary results showed several independent candidates getting into parliament, although the number of seats was not immediately known.

Among them was the Imtidad movement, one of the few activist-led new parties that took at least five seats in Nasiriyya, the city that has recently become the heart of the revolt. Their founder Alaa al-Rikabi told The Independent he intended to form “Iraq’s first real opposition in 100 years” within parliament.

This might help the next elections Jiyad added. “If people could see a group of MPs that didn’t take part in government and acted in people’s best interests, people would vote from them then next time around.”

Despite the early elections and new electoral law, youth activists called for a boycott of the polls believing them to be dominated by the political old guard. A string of forced disappearances and targeted assassinations that have killed more than 30 people has further discouraged voters from taking part.

It meant that a preliminary turnout showed record low participation of just 41 per cent of the registered voters.

When asked whether the low voter turnout undermined their win the Sadrist Movement spokesperson dismissed concerns. “Yes, there was a low turnout but (we) are not worried, the vote shows us as the clear winners,” he said.

The other big winner were Kurdish parties who provisionally took  61 seats.

Elections in Iraq since 2003 have been followed by protracted negotiations that can last months and serve to distribute government posts among the dominant parties.

The result on Monday is not expected to dramatically alter the balance of power in Iraq or in the wider region.

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25 minutes ago, yota691 said:
 
 Al-Najaf Al-Ashraf: Morning
 
The leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, considered the victory of reform a victory for Iraq.
Al-Sadr said in a televised speech yesterday evening, Monday: "Praise be to God, who cherished the reform with its largest bloc, an Iraqi bloc, neither eastern nor western, whose light shines from the land of Iraq, its people and its bounties."
He added, "This is your day, O people of Iraq, in which reform has triumphed. Today is the day of Iraq, determination and steadfastness, and the day of the people and the state," noting that "Iraq is the Iraq of reference, the wise, the wise, and the dignitaries. ".
He stressed that "there is no place for corruption and the corrupt in Iraq after today, and we will eliminate corruption with our blood if necessary, so come to a reform paper, in which there is no sharing of power over the interests of the people."
He pointed out that "all embassies are welcome unless they interfere in Iraqi affairs and form the government," noting that "any intervention will have a diplomatic, and perhaps popular response, because Iraq is for Iraqis only and we will not allow interference at all."
He called for "the necessity of restricting arms to the hands of the state and preventing their use outside this scope," explaining that "it is time for the people to live in peace, without occupation or terrorism." The leader of the Sadrist movement pledged that "from now on, the government or the parties will not have control over the money and bounties, but rather it is for the people, and the people's oil is for the people, and we will work to raise the level of the Iraqi dinar to be in the ranks of global currencies gradually."
He pointed out that "construction, industry, agriculture, education and health have a large share of the efforts of benefactors, with no difference between one governorate and another except in terms of need and the number of its residents.

 The leader of the Sadrist movement pledged that "from now on, the government or the parties will not have control over the money and bounties, but rather it is for the people, and the people's oil is for the people, and we will work to raise the level of the Iraqi dinar to be in the ranks of global currencies gradually."

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6 hours ago, mally2 said:

 The leader of the Sadrist movement pledged that "from now on, the government or the parties will not have control over the money and bounties, but rather it is for the people, and the people's oil is for the people, and we will work to raise the level of the Iraqi dinar to be in the ranks of global currencies gradually."

Sounds great we just need to see movement

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9 hours ago, mally2 said:

 The leader of the Sadrist movement pledged that "from now on, the government or the parties will not have control over the money and bounties, but rather it is for the people, and the people's oil is for the people, and we will work to raise the level of the Iraqi dinar to be in the ranks of global currencies gradually."

Today ?

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10 hours ago, yota691 said:

we will work to raise the level of the Iraqi dinar to be in the ranks of global currencies gradually."

So, will Sadrist already win the election and become a new PM? 

" raise the level of iraqi dinar " this sounds too good to be true. And , hopefully, he really does what he says and no more liars and BS. Just wonder, what does " gradually " mean, according to iraqi's dictionary?

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10 hours ago, mally2 said:

 The leader of the Sadrist movement pledged that "from now on, the government or the parties will not have control over the money and bounties, but rather it is for the people, and the people's oil is for the people, and we will work to raise the level of the Iraqi dinar to be in the ranks of global currencies gradually."

SOON

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Iraq election: Nationalist cleric Moqtada al-Sadr claims victory

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A young supporter of Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr holds up an Iraqi flag at a rally in Baghdad held after the initial results of Iraq's election were announced (11 October 2021)IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS
Image caption,Supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr's Saeroun movement celebrated in Baghdad on Monday night

Shia Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has claimed victory for his nationalist Saeroun movement in Iraq's election.

Mr Sadr, who wants to end US and Iranian influence over Iraq's internal affairs, promised to form a government free from foreign interference.

Partial results showed Saeroun winning 73 of the 329 seats in parliament and Sunni Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi's Taqaddum coalition second with 38.

The pro-Iranian Fatah alliance suffered a surprise setback, getting only 14.

It is likely to take many weeks of negotiations to build a new governing coalition, which Mr Sadr cannot lead because he did not stand as a candidate.

But the record low official turnout of 41% suggests many Iraqis do not believe that there will be any real change to the power-sharing system, based on sectarian and ethnic identity, that has allowed a narrow elite to keep a firm grip on power since the US-led invasion in 2003.

 

Sunday's election was the first since mass protests over government corruption, high unemployment and dire public services erupted in 2019.

The poll had been due next year but was brought forward by six months in response to the unrest, during which more than 550 demonstrators were killed by security forces and gunmen suspected of links to powerful Iran-backed Shia militias in the paramilitary Popular Mobilisation force.

 
 

The old electoral system was also replaced with one meant to make it easier for independent candidates to challenge established parties.

 

Initial results released on Monday night showed that Saeroun won 19 more seats than it did in the last election in 2018, the state-owned Iraq News Agency (INA) reported.

Mr Sadr hailed the results as a victory for reform and for Iraq.

 

"It is the day of the victory of reform over corruption. The day of the people's victory over occupation, normalisation, militias, poverty, injustice and enslavement," he said in a televised speech.

 

"It is a day when sectarianism, ethnicity and partisanship were defeated. It is the day of Iraq and we are the servants of the Iraqi people."

 

The cleric warned foreign powers that all embassies would be welcomed "as long as they do not interfere in Iraq's internal affairs and the formation of the government", and that any intervention would be "met with a diplomatic or even a popular response".

Moqtada al-Sadr speaks after the initial results of Iraq's election were announced (11 October 2021)IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS
Image caption,Moqtada al-Sadr cannot serve as prime minister because he did not stand in the election

Mr Sadr, 47, is one of the best-known and most powerful figures in Iraq.

A son of the late Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadeq al-Sadr, he shot to prominence after the 2003 invasion as a vocal opponent of the foreign occupation and the head of a militia that repeatedly clashed with US forces.

In recent years, he has recast himself as an anti-corruption campaigner and also distanced himself from Iran, vowing that he would "not leave Iraq in its grip".

He has also criticised the Iran-backed militias, which have developed significant political and economic power since helping the Iraqi government defeat the Sunni jihadist group Islamic State in 2017.

 

Fatah leader Hadi al-Ameri, a militia commander with close ties to the hard-line leadership in Tehran, rejected the election results.

"We will not accept these fabricated results, whatever the price, and we will defend the votes of our candidates and voters with full force," he was quoted as saying by Al-Sumaria TV on Tuesday.

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Shia cleric Sadr issues warnings against interference in forming Iraq government

 
October 12, 2021 at 11:32 am | 
Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr Najaf, on February 10, 2021 [ALI NAJAFI/AFP via Getty Images]
Iraqi cleric Moqtada Sadr Najaf, on February 10, 2021 [ALI NAJAFI/AFP via Getty Images]
 
October 12, 2021 at 11:32 am

After winning the largest number of seats in this weekend's early parliamentary elections, Shia Iraqi cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr warned against external interference in the formation of the new government, Anadolu reported yesterday.

Sadr's bloc won 73 seats in the 329-member parliament, according to initial results, followed by the Taqaddoum bloc of Parliament Speaker Mohamed Al-Halbousi with 38 seats and the State of Law bloc led by former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki came with 37 seats.

Al-Sadr sent a message of reassurance to the US Embassy in Baghdad, saying: "All embassies are welcome unless they interfere in Iraqi affairs and the formation of the government." The US embassy in Baghdad has been subjected to repeated rocket attacks for months and Washington holds Shia armed factions close to Tehran responsible for these attacks.

According to Anadolu, Al-Sadr warned that "any intervention will have a diplomatic response, and perhaps a popular one. Iraq is for the Iraqis only, and we will not allow the intervention at all."

 

"Weapons must be confined to the hands of the state and the use of weapons outside this scope is prohibited. It is time for the people to live in peace, without occupation or terrorism."

The final results are expected to be announced in two weeks. A coalition is likely to be formed as a government requires the support of at least 165 deputies.

In the 2018 elections, the Sadr-backed Sairoon alliance won 54 seats.

The polls saw a low turnout of only 41 per cent, according to the election commission, the lowest since 2005.

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5 minutes ago, yota691 said:

 

Irqi cleric Moqtada Sadr Najaf, n February 10, 2021 ALAJAFI/AFP via GettImages]

 

The final results are expected to be announced in two weeks. 

Two weeks from now for final results? Hmm 2 weeks isn't long.  i guess we all don't mind waiting for 2 weeks to find out who will win the election and become the new PM?

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42 minutes ago, rvmydinar said:

Can Sadr's mouth be trusted 100%????

I may be wrong, but if my memory serves me correctly, I believed this ass clown has spoken out of both sides of his mouth in the past!! So NO I DON"T trust anything he or any of the other goat humpers say, until they SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!

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Sadr claims largest bloc, promises nationalist government

7 hours ago

Supporters of Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr celebrate in Baghdad's Tahrir square on October 11, 2021. Photo: Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Monday claimed victory in Iraq’s parliamentary election and, striking a nationalist tone, warned foreign countries not to interfere in the process of forming the government.

“Thank God who has blessed his largest bloc with reform, a bloc that is neither Eastern nor Western, but Iraqi,” Sadr said in a televised address on Monday night.

Preliminary results showed Sadr’s movement leading by a large margin, securing over 70 seats in the parliament. The election was marred by a record-low turnout as voters and parties boycotted, citing concerns of fraud and disillusionment with the political system and politicians seen as corrupt. 

Sadr sent strong messages to the international community and Iranian-backed militias that operate outside of government control.  

“All embassies are welcomed as long as they do not interfere in Iraqi affairs and the formation of the government. If they interfere we will have a diplomatic response or even a popular response,” he said.

The United States and Iran compete for strategic influence in Iraq. For years Sadr has been on the frontlines, calling on Western powers to leave Iraq. He has also now turned his eye towards Iranian-backed militias opposed to Western and especially American presence in the country. 

“From now on, all arms should be in the hands of the state, and its use outside of that should be forbidden, even for those who call themselves the resistance,” he said, referring to the militias.

The populist cleric, who earlier this year withdrew from the election, throwing the whole process into doubt until he was enticed back into the race, will now be the main force in the formation of the government and has started giving out promises to the people.

“All corrupt people will be punished wherever they are,” Sadr said.

Members of his bloc, however, have been linked to corruption and ineptitude. Former health minister Hassan al-Tamimi was forced to resign after deadly hospital fires in Baghdad and Nasiriyah earlier this year, blamed on the ministry’s negligence.

Sadr also promised to fix some of Iraq’s financial problems.

“We will work on increasing the value of the Iraqi dinar against the value of international currencies,” he said.

He had previously expressed his concern over the parliamentary decision in December to devalue the dinar. “The Central Bank and all other banks are prisoners of corruption and the corrupt. The government and parliament must seek specialized methods to end this and liberalize it immediately,” he tweeted at the time. 

Sadr led the largest bloc in the outgoing parliament. In the 2018 election, his Sairoon alliance, a coalition of Sadrists, the communist party, and some smaller groups, secured 54 seats.
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