BAGHDAD, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and prominent Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr Saturday announced the formation of a new alliance, as part of the process to form the largest alliance in the coming parliament.
"We have an agreement to form a cross-sectarian alliance between the blocs of Sa'iroon (led by Sadr) and al-Nasr (led by Abadi)," Abadi said at a joint press conference with Sadr after the two leaders met in Sadr's headquarters in the city of Najaf in south of Baghdad.
"This alliance does not mean that the doors are blocked for the other political blocs, but are open for all," Abadi said.
Sadr read eight-point political accord at the press conference, including the formation of cross-sectarian and ethnic alliance, fighting corruption, forming a government of technocrats and qualified people, and pursuing an economic reform program.
Sadr's Sa'iroon bloc was the front-runner and won 54 seats in the upcoming 329-seat parliament, while al-Nasr bloc won 42 seats.
On June 12, Sadr announced alliance with al-Fath bloc led by Hadi al-Ameri, who came second in the May 12 elections with 47 seats.
The latest announcement came two days after Iraq's Supreme Federal Court approved the parliament's earlier decision to manually recount votes of the country's parliamentary election is constitutional.
The court's decision came after it received several complaints over parliamentary decision on June 6 to amend the election law and to carry out recount of votes in all polling stations across Iraq over allegations of fraud and irregularities in the election.
The court's approval of recounting votes is not yet clear to what extend would change the final results of the parliamentary election and would certainly delay the formation of the next government.
Many Iraqi parties, especially in the Kurdish region and the disputed areas, including Kirkuk province, have complained about alleged irregularities and forgery in the parliamentary election.
On May 12, millions of Iraqis went to 8,959 polling centers across the country to vote for their parliamentary representatives in the first general election after Iraq's historic victory over the Islamic State group last December.
