MUQTADA AL SADR VOTES FOR TALABANI’S REPLACEMENT

BAGHDAD, shaffaq.com – 15.5.2013 – Shiite cleric and the head of the Sadrist movement, Muqtada al-Sadr announced on Tuesday, his support to the nomination of an alternative for the presidency of the republic post from the current president, Jalal Talabani and called to speed up selecting that alternative.

The Iraqi presidency of prosecution had asked in a statement Monday by the Parliament Speaker to initiate legal procedures to fill Talabani’s position due to his absence for long time, through the implementation of Article 72 of the Iraqi Constitution, which identified certain period of absence from the position, and that this demand is based on the text Article I of the Public Prosecution Law No. 159 of 1979, as amended.

Article (72 / II / c) of the Iraqi Constitution stipulates : In case of the absence of the President of the Republic from his office for any reason, a new president is elected to complete the remaining period of the mandate of the president of the republic”.

“I support the (Iraqi prosecution) to appoint a president of the republic for it is unreasonable in our time to have (Iraq without a president),” Sadr said in a statement issued by his office. Al-Sadr called on prosecution body to resolve the issues of “rampant corruption in the country, postponement of elections in Mosul and Anbar, , criminalization of Baath, assaulting demonstrators, returning Baathists to power,acquittal of resistance , decriminalization of targeting the occupier, central bank, ration card, arms and sonar deal and consider innocent detainees and torturing them”.