Sadr disavows 15 candidates defying election boycott

BAGHDAD — Influential cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr on Thursday disavowed 15 members of his Shiite National Movement who registered as candidates in the upcoming parliamentary elections despite his directive to boycott the vote.

In a brief statement, Al-Sadr urged his supporters to cut ties with the candidates but added, “Do not attack them.”

Al-Sadr has reiterated his call to boycott the election for both political and religious reasons. On July 13, he expelled 31 members from the movement, including nine fighters from its armed wing, Saraya Al-Salam, for defying his order.

Sadrists won 73 of parliament’s 329 seats in the October 2021 elections, forming the largest bloc. Al-Sadr pushed to form a majority government excluding Iran-aligned factions, but his efforts failed, and he ordered his MPs to resign. Their departure triggered a political deadlock that ended with the formation of a consensus government dominated by rival Shiite groups.

Last month, Al-Sadr convened a meeting with his followers in Najaf’s Hananah district to discuss the election boycott. According to a statement by his aide Saleh Mohammed Al-Iraqi, Al-Sadr asked which political bloc could commit to principles including “independence without dependency, monopoly of arms by the state, strengthening the army and police, disbanding militias, integrating the Popular Mobilization Forces into the security services or reorganizing them, commitment to patriotism, exposing the corrupted, and striving for reform.”