Dozens storm Iraqi parliament in protest against PM appointment
Baghdad, 27 Jul (EFE).- Dozens of Iraqis on Wednesday stormed the parliament building to protest a candidate for prime minister put forward by the majority bloc.
“The protesters entered the Parliament building after they entered the Green Zone,” the state-run INA news agency said, referring to Baghdad’s fortified zone housing major government buildings and foreign embassies.
Images broadcast by the Iraqi Rudaw TV showed dozens of supporters of influential Shite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr occupying the seats of the lower chamber and taking photos on top of the tables.
Pro-Sadr protesters gathered in central Baghdad against Mohamed Shia al-Sudani, the prime ministerial candidate of the pro-Iran coalition Coordination Framework.
Hundreds of people managed to break into the Green Zone, despite security forces using tear gas and other riot control methods to disperse the crowd, an interior ministry source who requested anonymity told Efe.
No direct clashes between the security forces and the demonstrators have taken place and no injuries have been reported, according to the source.
Earlier this week, the Coordination Framework announced al-Sudani, a former labor and social affairs minister, as its candidate to form a new government, after over nine months of political deadlock.
The Sadrist Movement, led by al-Sadr and which received the most votes in the elections, resigned its 73 seats in Parliament in protest against the blockade imposed by the Framework of Coordination to form a government. EFE
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