Iraqi parliament speaker calls for setting date for early elections

BAGHDAD (AA) – Iraq’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad al-Halbousi on Sunday called for setting a date for early elections amid tension over failure to form a new government.

The call came one day after Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi urged the country’s political parties to hold a new round of national dialogue on Monday to resolve Iraq’s months-long political crisis.

“Setting a date for early parliamentary elections and provincial polls by the end of next year” should be on the agenda of the national dialogue, al-Halbousi said in a statement.

He also called for “electing a new president and a government agreed upon by the people and political powers.”

Tension has been running high across Iraq in recent weeks over failure of Shia groups to agree on a new prime minister since the country’s last elections Oct. 10, 2021.

More than 30 protesters were killed on Monday when supporters of influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr stormed the Republican Palace, where the government is seated in Baghdad after the firebrand leader said he was stepping down from politics.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar