Muqtada al-Sadr, the leader of the Sadrist movement in Iraq, announced on Thursday that he will not participate in the upcoming Iraqi elections and will not support any party. The Sairoon bloc, led by al-Sadr, won the 2018 parliamentary elections, securing 54 seats. Al-Sadr has millions of followers in Iraq and controls a significant paramilitary group. He has long been an adversary of the United States and opposes Iranian influence in Iraq.
In a televised speech, he stated that he would refrain from participating in the elections to preserve what remains of the country. Al-Sadr said, "I have withdrawn my hand from the participants in the government," and added, "For the sake of what remains of the homeland and to save the nation that has been burned by the corrupt and continues to be burned, I inform you that I will not participate in this election, and I announce my withdrawal from all affiliated with this current and future government... everyone is either deficient or negligent and all are subject to accountability."
He continued: "The Iraqi people are invited today to support Iraq against the corrupt, the subservient, and the normalizers; do not sell your homeland to them at any price." Al-Sadr warned that "Iraq's fate could be like that of Syria, Afghanistan, or other countries that fell victim to internal, regional, and international policies."
He considered that what is happening in Iraq "is part of an international satanic scheme to humiliate, subjugate, and destroy the people out of fear of the arrival of reform lovers who will eliminate corruption, loving the homeland, but we are not those who will kneel to such." He added, "We hope for success in these elections and for the rise of all the righteous, and for the corrupt to be kept away, but it is far-fetched."
