A lone legislator in a legislative committee: void left by resigned Sadrist MPs

Shafaq News/The mass resignation of the Sadrist lawmakers from the Iraqi parliament has left some committees with only a single name on its roster, the rapporteur of the Youth and Sports Committee said on Monday.

"I am the only primary member in the committee," said lawmaker Jiyai Taymour in a statement to Shafaq News Agency, "all the other members are secondary and have primary seating in other committees."

"The parliament presidium is aware of the current distribution of the members since the first deputy speaker is in charge of assorting them," he said, demanding "a swift intervention to reconsider the distribution."

"The committee cannot call in a meeting or issue resolutions because the secondary members decreased from ten to five after the resignation of the Sadrist movement's representatives," he explained, "without a quorum of primary members, the committee remains unable to elect a rapporteur and make decisions."

On June 12, a total of 73 lawmakers from the Sadrist bloc resigned after their leader, powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, asked them to step down following a prolonged stalemate over forming a government.