Al-Sadr reveals his vision to the political lineup to the post-election phase 

Shafaq News/ The leader of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, dropped on Sunday a hint about his vision to the lineup in the Iraqi political arena. 

In a tweet he shared earlier today, the Populist Shiite Cleric said that the Parliament shall have two "orientations", "a loyalist party, that forms a government and takes upon itself the reforms at all levels."

The second party, according to al-Sadr, is "the opposition, whose consensus is compelling to the first without marginalization."

A source from inside the Sadrist movement lambasted the approach that some Iraqi forces pursue to shuffle the cards and earn a position in the cabinet lineup, stressing that the movement has changed its mindset and it will "not share the power this time."

The source said in a statement to Shafaq News Agency, "the political forces that lost in the recent parliamentary election are trying to impede al-Sadr and prevent him from forming the government in every way possible. The first of which is to demand a manual recount of the ballots to all the Electronic Voting Machines [EVMs]."

"If those demands were met, regardless of being illegal, a manual recount will take eight months. It is sufficient time to devise a well-plotted scenario that reshuffles the cards." 

"Surprises are coming from all the parties that lost the election and [the parties that] support them," the source said. 

For his part, the former MP and the leading figure in the Sadrist movement, Riyad al-Masoudi, said that conducting a manual recount of all the EVMs in the country requires legislation. 

"The endorsement of all the defeated parties to this choice is a political issue," he said.

"Article 76 of the Constitution stipulates that the President of the Republic assigns the largest bloc to form the government (the Sadrist movement). The Prime Minister, according to the components equation, shall be a Shiite. i.e. a Sadrist."

"The Sadrist movement has a new political vision. It is different from the former one that relies on quota and sharing the power with parties it does not agree with."

Al-Masoudi called on the defeated political parties to "strive for coining agreements to build the state. Participating in the political process is not exclusively participating in the government." 

"The axis of the political process is the Iraqi Parliament and the agreement of the political forces upon active oversight, legislation, and true representation of the people."

"The political forces that did not win enough seats wish to participate in the government regardless of the number of seats they won. This means that they do not believe that there is a new political map after each election. Hence, the reasons for some parties' insistence upon holding a manual recount became clear."

The results of the early parliamentary election held on October 10 showed the Sadrist movement maintaining the most seats in parliament, leading in several of Iraq's 18 provinces, including the capital Baghdad.

 Al-Sadr, a controversial leader remembered for leading an insurgency against U.S. forces after the 2003 invasion, appeared to have increased his movement's seats in the 329-member parliament from 54 in 2018 to  73.

With 94% of the ballot boxes counted, none of the competing political blocs appeared on track to win a majority in parliament and consequently name a prime minister. But as the results stand, al-Sadr's bloc will be able to take a leading role in the political horse-trading to find a compromise candidate and set the political agenda for the next four years.

The State of Low Coalition, led by the former Prime Minister of Iraq Nouri al-Maliki, secured 37 seats, fours seat behind al-Taqaddom (Progress) bloc led by the Parliament Speaker Muhammad al-Halboosi. 

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led by the Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani has won 32 seats; twice more than Iran's favorite al-Fatah Alliance, which toll of seats diminished to 14 only from 48 in the 2018 elections.