PSM's military wing orders members to shun Iraqi polls
Shafaq News – Baghdad
The Peace Brigades (Saraya al-Salam), the armed wing of Iraq’s Patriotic Shiite Movement (PSM) led by Muqtada al-Sadr, renewed on Monday its boycott of the parliamentary elections, framing the decision as “not a withdrawal from the field, but the highest form of peaceful victory.”
In an open letter, Abu Mustafa al-Hamidawi, the head of Saraya al-Salam, described the boycott as an “honorable national stance reflecting deep awareness and outright rejection of any attempt to falsify the truth.”
He urged the Brigades' members to avoid polling stations, warning that participation would grant legitimacy to “a farce conducted behind closed doors at the expense of the homeland,” while noting that the polls have lost their true meaning.
The announcement comes as Iraq’s 2025 parliamentary elections opened yesterday with a special vote involving more than 1.3 million Iraqis, including security personnel, defense and service workers, and internally displaced persons (IDPs). The general vote is scheduled for Tuesday, when around 20 million citizens are expected to cast ballots.
Al-Sadr had previously withdrawn his movement from the elections, citing a process “tainted by corruption” and rejecting alliances with what he labels corrupt forces. Last week, he reaffirmed the full boycott, again pointing to “corruption” and dismissing the notion of countering it with what he describes as greater corruption.
The move echoes al-Sadr’s approach in the 2021 elections. His bloc won 73 of 329 seats, becoming the largest in parliament, before he instructed his lawmakers to resign, again pointing to “corruption.” Al-Sadr frequently uses the term “corrupted” to describe Iraq’s political figures.
Read more: Iraq’s 2025 poll: +21M voters, new law, fading monitors, and fierce bloc rivalries
