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Planned body aimed at keeping a check on the
government is criticised for being unconstitutional.
Opponents of Iraqi premier Ibrahim al-Ja'afari are
backing a proposal to create an influential council,
comprising Iraqi leaders and opposition figures,
which could curb the cabinet's power.
The exact role of the council, which was first
suggested by Kurdistan regional government president
Masood Barzani last month and is supported by US
officials, has not been made clear. Proponents have
only said it would monitor cabinet business and
provide a check on decisions.
The council would include all of Iraq's top
politicians - the president, vice presidents, prime
minister, deputy prime ministers, the national
assembly speaker - as well as some party leaders,
including opposition figures. Critics panned it as
unconstitutional.
The plan is being praised by opponents of Ja'afari,
who has been nominated to lead the country’s first
four-year permanent government.
Kurdish, secular and Sunni Arab leaders have called
for Ja'afari's coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance,
to pull his nomination for fear that he will exclude
important parties - such as Ayad Allawi’s Iraqi
National List - from his cabinet and give all the
most important ministerial posts to members of his
coalition, the leading slate in parliament. Most of
the latter are continuing to back Ja'afari.
The disagreements over the composition of the
government have left a power vacuum that many
believe has allowed the sectarian violence to
spiral.
Mahmood Othman, a Kurdish national assembly member,
said the council would ensure that all leading
parties participate in decision-making.
"Concerns over the performance of any prime minister
will be gone after this council is formed," said
Othman. "It will seriously help in solving the
continuing [security] crisis that Ja'afari's
government couldn't solve."
The Kurdish newspaper Hawlati reported that the
council was originally conceived during a meeting
between former prime minister Allawi and the US
ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, in Salahaddin
last year. Ja'afari is trying to keep Allawi out of
his cabinet, arguing that his Iraqi National List -
which won 25 out of the 275 parliamentary seats - is
not sufficiently well represented in the assembly to
warrant a ministerial post.
Kurdish leaders are in part pressing for the
creation of the council in the hope that it could
address issues affecting their community, in
particular the status of Kirkuk and the return of
Kurds expelled from the city under Saddam.
Barzani made his announcement about the council
after meeting with Khalilzad, who has been openly
critical of Ja'afari's government.
Critics of the proposed body note that there is no
mention of it in Iraq's new constitution, approved
by voters last year. The new parliament, which has
not convened since slates were elected in December
2005, has four months from its first session to
amend the constitution.
"There is no article or item to establish this
council," said Khudhair al-Khazai, a United Iraqi
Alliance lawmaker. "We insist on sticking to the
articles in the constitution and refuse to overlook
them."
A political analyst in Baghdad, Ayad Abdai, also
expressed concern over the planned body.
"This is a negative indicator that Iraqi politicians
intend to abort democracy," he said. "How can we
replace an elected council with an unelected one?"
But Iraqi Communist party leader and national
assembly member Hameed Majeed Musa argued that Iraq
needs an authority to monitor the government and
hold it to account.
Sunni Arab leaders who accused Ja'afari's interim
government of fuelling sectarianism are also
supporting the council.
Saleh al-Mutlak, head of the Sunni Arab Iraqi Front
for National Dialogue, argued that the body would be
legitimate if approved by parliament. Mutlak helped
draft the constitution but opposed its final
version.
Safa Mansoor is an IWPR trainee journalist in
Baghdad
www.iwpr.net
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