Iraqi Authorities Prepare for Early Parliamentary Elections

The Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced Saturday that the security formations across the country will increase their capabilities in preparation for the early parliamentary elections that are scheduled to take place in the country in June 2021.

The spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, Maj. Gen. Khaled Al-Muhanna, said in a press statement, that the Minister of Interior directly supervises all security operations carried out by the ministry's formations.

Al-Muhanna has directed personnel of security bodies to raise the level of their work to bring stability to the country ahead of upcoming elections, adding that holding elections in Iraq requires a safe environment.

Therefore, all formations of the Ministry of Interior have begun to deploy their security operations in a manner that achieves greater security and combating crime.

He pointed out that the coming days will witness an escalation of the operations of the Ministry of the Interior formations against criminal gangs.

On the other hand, a statement issued by the spokesman for the Prime Minister, Mustafa Al-Kazemi, stated that he had also decided to cancel the licenses to carry weapons in the southern provinces of Iraq, to prevent further repercussions that harm civil peace.

Al-Kazemi stressed that the tension in the situation in Iraq is not in the interest of the country and that there is no alternative to the law, order, and justice.

Correspondents said that the demonstrations renewed in Najaf governorate in support of the demonstration squares in Dhi Qar after violence occurred in Al-Haboubi Square."

The local authorities in Dhi Qar governorate imposed a curfew in the governorate due to the events and the fall of four dead and about fifty martyrs.

The government dismissed Dhi Qar Police Chief Hazem Al-Waeli from his post and appointed Maj. Gen. Odeh Salem Abboud as his successor.

Confrontations took place between supporters of the leader of a Shi'ite movement, Muqtada al-Sadr, and demonstrators in the Dhi Qar governorate in southern Iraq. A number of people were killed, and others wounded.