“I will not let the corrupted to enter the government again in new clothes and in a new form and we will not let anyone or any party influence the new government,” Sadr said.
“If anyone in the protests listens to us, I will neither tell them to go home nor tell them to continue protesting,” he said.
“The people have the right to protest but I will only tell them to preserve themselves from using violence and damaging the country’s properties and not to attack the religious and important places,” he added.
The Council of Representatives accepted Prime Minister Abdul Mahdi’s resignation on Sunday in the face of weeks of demonstrations.
On Thursday, security forces shot dead 46 people in another southern city, Nassiriya, 12 in Najaf and four in Baghdad bringing the death toll from weeks of unrest to at least 408, most of them unarmed protesters, according to a Reuters tally from medical and police sources.
The unrest is Iraq’s biggest crisis for years. Protesters demand the departure of a Shia-dominated ruling elite backed by Iran which has held power since the US-led invasion and overthrow of Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.
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