ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Tuesday called on the victors of Iraq's parliamentary elections to extricate the country from its current “predicaments,” including foreign interference and the proliferation of arms in the hands of non-state actors.

Iraq concluded its 2025 parliamentary elections on Tuesday evening at 6:00 pm, in which around 7,750 candidates competed for the Iraqi legislature’s 329 seats.

Sadr and his party, the National Shiite Movement, boycotted Iraq’s political process after failing to form a majority government despite emerging as the main victor in the country’s previous elections in 2021.

The Shiite leader also skipped the 2025 polls and called on the Iraqi people to boycott the electoral process.

“Despite our call for a boycott, we did not attempt to obstruct the electoral process. We are not power-seekers, but rather advocates for the salvation of our nation,” Sadr wrote in a statement moments after polls closed nationwide on Tuesday evening.

Sadr argued that the “full responsibility falls upon those who benefit from the votes of the electorate to restore Iraq to its rightful place and extricate it from its current predicament, as they describe it, and from foreign interference from all sides.”

He also laid the responsibility of curbing the proliferation of weapons at the feet of the victors, saying that they must “confine them to the hands of the security forces, including the Popular Mobilization Forces [PMF], excluding any rogue factions.”

Iraq has been accused time and again by the US and its allies of being under Tehran’s influence, with certain factions under the PMF having been designated as terrorist organizations by Washington.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Shiite cleric called out parties who claim to be supported by his movement, labeling them “liars” and those who believe them “delusional,” while reaffirming his call for boycotting the election.

The elections saw over 7,000 polling stations open at 7:00 am across the country to receive voters. Over 20 million Iraqis were eligible to participate in the process.