Iraq’s top court, the Federal Court, on Wednesday rejected a petition to dissolve the parliament, saying that to do so would be beyond the court's legal authority and that the parliament—which has the power to choose a president and prime minister—must dissolve itself if it is deemed to not have performed its duties.
The petition was from the Shia leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, whose party—despite not holding a majority of seats, still holds more than any other—boycotted the legislature after being unable to form a government, which has lead to a months-long political crisis that resulted in deadly violence last month.
“The rationale behind the court’s decision is to carefully come out with a written statement [that holds] the stick from the middle: on the one hand, saying it has no right or no authority to dissolve parliament and on the other hand, it’s saying this is the parliament’s mess and you need to solve it,” said Omar Al Saleh, a Middle East analyst based in Virginia in the United States.
“I think what they were trying to [do] perhaps is to appease Muqtada al-Sadr and [his] political power base in order not to avoid further destabilisation of the country,” he told Al Jazeera.
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