BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s top judiciary said Sunday it does not have the authority to dissolve the country’s parliament, days after an influential Shi’ite cleric gave it a week to remove the legislature from office so new elections can be held.
The decision by the Supreme Judicial Council is likely to heighten tensions between supporters of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and members of Iranian-backed groups as Iraq sinks deeper into its political impasse, now in its 10th month. The stalemate is the longest in the country since the US-led invasion in 2003 restored political order.
The Supreme Judicial Council said in a statement after a meeting on Sunday that the country’s political groups should not involve the judiciary in their “rivalries and political competition.”
Al-Sadr, whose supporters earlier this month stormed parliament in Baghdad and have since staged a sit-in outside the building, tweeted Wednesday that the judiciary has a week to dissolve the legislature. Al-Sadr has previously called for parliament to be dissolved and early elections to be held, but this time he set a deadline.
Al-Sadr’s political bloc won the most seats in parliament but failed to form a majority government that would exclude its Iran-aligned rivals. He called on his supporters on Saturday night to be ready for mass protests across Iraq, raising concerns about tensions. He did not set a date for the planned protests.
“The Supreme Judicial Council does not have the authority to dissolve parliament,” the statement said, adding that its main job is to deal with legal matters and it cannot “interfere in the work of legislative or executive authorities.”
Even before Sunday’s judiciary meeting, he had declared that he does not have a constitutional right to dissolve parliament and that only lawmakers can vote to dissolve the legislature. Because parliament has exceeded the constitutional deadline to form a new government after the October elections, what will happen next is unclear.
Al-Sadr’s political rivals in the Coordination Framework, an alliance of Iranian-backed parties, earlier said parliament would have to meet to dissolve. On Friday, supporters of the group rallied in Baghdad to protest the occupation of the legislature by al-Sadr supporters.
Earlier this month, thousands of al-Sadr supporters stormed the heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses the Iraqi parliament, government buildings and foreign embassies. They invaded and occupied the parliament, after which all sessions of the assembly were canceled until further notice. The inauguration also effectively halted the Coordination Framework’s efforts to try to form the next government after al-Sadr failed to do so.
In their takeover of parliament, al-Sadr’s supporters stopped short of invading the adjoining Supreme Judicial Council building, an act many would consider a coup since the judiciary is the country’s highest legal authority.
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