ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraq’s powerful Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday rejected a request from Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid to participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections, which are scheduled to be held in November.

Iraqi state media on Friday published a letter dated April 16 from President Rashid, who called on Sadr to participate in the elections set for November 11.

"In a few months, the Iraqi people will cast their votes to elect members of the sixth round of the Council of Representatives. For the Council to be representative of the people, with all their diversity, components, and social formations, the participation of the political parties and entities that represent them is essential,” reads Rashid’s letter to Sadr, leader of the Shiite National Movement.

"A political process in which the Shiite National Movement does not participate remains incomplete. Therefore, we call on you to reverse your decision to boycott the elections,” Rashid told Sadr.

Responding to the letter, Sadr said he does not seek to cause the postponement or cancellation of the elections through a boycott, yet maintained his refusal to participate in the elections alongside "the corrupt and enemies of the people."

"I will remain a soldier of Iraq in the face of all the calamities and misfortunes that befall it,” replied Sadr, who has been out of the Iraqi political scene since August 2022.

Sadr, whose movement emerged as the main victor from the 2021 Iraqi parliamentary elections after gaining 73 seats, ordered all his MPs to resign from the legislature in June 2022 after his attempts to form the next government were repeatedly blocked, mainly by the pro-Iran Shiite Coordination Framework.

In protest, Sadr’s supporters entered Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, staging a sit-in for over a month before violent clashes broke out between them and supporters of the Coordination Framework in late August 2022, during which at least 23 people were killed and over 380 others were wounded.

Sadr announced his “definitive” retirement from politics shortly after the clashes.

Sadr, who in late March said participating in the elections “constitutes assistance in sin,” had previously called on his supporters in February to update their voter registrations.