Shafaq News – Najaf

Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of Iraq’s Patriotic Shiite Movement, on Saturday permitted voters to accept money from parliamentary candidates while urging them to invalidate their ballots afterward.

Conveying his instructions, Salih Muhammad al-Iraqi, a close aide to Al-Sadr, said that "some demand a photo of the ballot in exchange for money or gifts. Take the gift, take their money, and photograph the ballot if that is not prohibited."

He added that voters should then cancel the ballot with another mark to make it invalid. "In this way, you have deprived them of their money and deprived them of your vote," he noted.

Iraq is finalizing its preparations for parliamentary elections scheduled on November 11, 2025, with more than 21.4 million eligible voters, including over 3 million in the Kurdistan Region.

Al-Sadr previously withdrew his movement from the elections, stating it would not participate in a process “tainted by corruption” or form alliances with what he calls corrupt forces. He frequently uses the term “corrupted” to describe Iraq’s political figures.

In the 2021 parliamentary elections, his bloc won 73 of 329 seats, becoming the largest in parliament before he later instructed his lawmakers to resign, citing “corruption” once again.

Read more: Al-Sadr’s boycott shakes Shiite balance, raises doubts over legitimacy