Sadr withdrawal from Iraqi parliament challenges Shiite rivals
Populist Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr withdrew his party members from Iraq's Council of Representatives, introducing a new level of uncertainty into Iraqi politics.
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on June 12 ordered his members of parliament to collectively hand in their resignation to parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi.
Head of the parliamentary Sadrist bloc, Hassan al-Adhari, was seen later in a short video handing his party's resignations to Halbusi, with the latter signing them all at once.
Will this create an opportunity for Sadr’s rivals to form the government? Or will it create a challenge for them in the Iraqi street?
According to Iraq's electoral law, when a member of parliament resigns, the electoral commission replaces them with the candidate who placed second in the same electoral circle.
