Iraq parliament approves long delayed elections law

Nov 8, 2009, 16:36 GMT

Iraqi lawmakers voted on a long delayed new election bill that will pave the way for national elections in January. EPA/ALI ABBAS

Baghdad- Iraqi lawmakers voted on a long delayed new election bill that will pave the way for national elections in January.

A debate over the conduct of elections in the oil-rich disputed city of Kirkuk has forestalled a vote several times in recent weeks.

Many Iraqi Kurds hope to make Kirkuk, and its nearby oil fields, the capital of a future independent state, calling it their 'Jerusalem.' Arab and Turkmen politicians view the city and surrounding al-Tamim province as integral parts of Iraq.

Parliamentary deadlock on the issue has thrown into question whether the elections will take place on January 16, as scheduled.

According to the Iraqi constitution, the elections must take place by the end of January. A law must be passed 90 days before voting begins.

Iyad al-Samarrai, the speaker of the Iraqi parliament has been meeting with representatives of the various parliamentary blocs in a new effort to strike a compromise.

The election law's appearance on the parliament's agenda followed an apparent softening of each side's position.

Kurdish lawmakers Tuesday said they would accept a compromise that would grant Kirkuk a 'special status' in January's polls - a retreat from the Kurds' previous insistence that voting in Kirkuk and the surrounding al-Tamim province must take place together with the rest of the country, using the most recent voter registration rolls.

Massoud Barzani, president of northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, had previously said that the Kurds would not accept any solution giving Kirkuk 'a special status' in the 2010 polls.

Kirkuk was left out of previous elections after lawmakers failed to come to a formula for counting the region's votes.

Kurdish lawmakers back a UN proposal that would see Kirkuk vote with the rest of the country, using 2009 voter registration rolls that show a marked rise in the number of Kurdish voters.

Meanwhile, Arab and Turkmen politicians look with suspicion at the rise in Kurdish voters and want 2004 rolls used instead.

A more recent UN proposal suggested using the most recent voter rolls, but instituting a quota system to make sure that Arabs and Turkmens were represented.

This proposal also suggested making the results of the election provisional, subject to an examination of the voter rolls.

Kurds initially rejected that proposal, with the head of the Kurdish parliamentary bloc, calling it 'curious backpedaling on the (UN) mission's stance on Iraq.'

Iraqi lawmakers have been seeking a consensus solution to the issue for fear that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself an ethnic Kurd, might veto an election law passed over Kurdish objections.

Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, an Arab Sunni Muslim, said he would intervene if one side sought a solution at the expense of all groups in the city.