Iraq’s Sadr allies with communist party in upcoming elections

Iraq’s renowned Shia cleric and leader of the Sadrist movement, Moqtada Al-Sadr, has formed an alliance with the Iraqi Communist Party to run in the upcoming legislative elections scheduled for May.

Sadrist movement leader, Ibrahim Al-Jabri, said the alliance is the first in Iraq’s history.

“It is a revolution by Iraqis who want reform both secularists, like the communists, and moderate Islamists.”

Al-Jabri told a crowd of anti-government protesters in Baghdad that “the alliance is no surprise because we have been fighting together for two years”.

In 2015, the Sadrist movement supported civil society activists in protests demanding reforms and fighting corruption.

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Secretary of the Iraqi Communist Party, Raed Fahmi, said the demands do not have a sectarian character, but aim to achieve social justice.

“The important thing is that it allowed people from Islamic and secular movements to work together,” he said.

“Cooperation was born between people who initially did not have any common ideology and then developed into a political alliance,” said Fahmi.

The new alliance dubbed Marching Towards Reform includes a total of six blocs.