Iraq's top court rejects calls to dissolve parliament

Iraq's federal court has dismissed a lawsuit calling for the dissolution of the country's legislature, following a request by followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr for the judiciary to get involved due to lawmakers' inability to form a government more than 10 months after elections.

The federal court rejected the case, filed by a group of lawyers that included Sadrists, saying the courts lack the authority to interfere in the legislative or executive processes. While the judiciary stressed there was no constitutional basis for such a decision, it encouraged the parliamentarians to carry out their constitutional duties by either forming the government or dissolving parliament.

“The penalty imposed on the House of Representatives for not carrying out its constitutional duties is to dissolve the House when there are justifications for it,” the court ruled.

In last October's elections, Sadrists won the most seats in a parliament of any party (73 out of 329) and formed an alliance with the Sunni Taqaddum party led by parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi and the Kurdistan Democratic Party led by Massoud Barzani. However, they failed to form a government since they did not have a big enough alliance to select the president, which requires two-thirds of the members.