Baghdad: Prominent Iraqi Shia cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr has reversed his earlier decision to boycott the parliamentary elections slated for October 10.
In a televised speech on Friday, al-Sadr said that he had received a paper on reforms in the country pledged by the political parties, calling him to return to the elections, reports Xinhua news agency.
“We received the reform paper from politicians we trust, and we found it to be in accordance with our aspirations,” al-Sadr said.
“We will participate in the elections with determination to save and reform Iraq from corruption,” he added
On July 15, the cleric announced his withdrawal from the parliamentary elections due to “rampant corruption and unfair competition between political parties”.
The Al-Sadr-backed Sairoon Coalition, which includes hiss loyalists allied with some other political parties, became the largest group in the Iraqi Parliament after the 2018 elections.
Iraq is scheduled to hold the early parliamentary elections on October 10, 2021, in response to the anti-government protests against corruption and lack of public services.
The previous parliamentary elections in Iraq were held on May 12, 2018, and the next polls were originally scheduled to take place in 2022.