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Kurdistan’s Christian minister slams
provincial polls law
26.9.2008
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September
26, 2008
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region "Iraq", —
A Christian minister in Kurdistan’s regional
government on Friday lashed out the provincial
elections law lately endorsed by the parliament for
marginalising his religious denomination.
“The version of the law reached by the parliament’s
legal committee along with regions and provinces
committee was a setback for democracy progress in
the country and a flagrant violation for the
constitution article second forbidding the
legislation of any law breaking democracy
principles,” George Mansoor,www.ekurd.net
minister of civil
society affairs in Kurdistan’s regional government,
told VOI.
Iraq’s parliament passed a provincial elections law
Wednesday after months of arguing between Arabs and
Kurds, and called for the vote to be held before
January 31 next year.
MPs agreed to postpone the polls in Kirkuk and three
northern provinces that already form part of the
autonomous Kurdistan region.
The law was criticised by minorities including
Christians for cancelling an item ensuring seats for
their representatives.
“The current version of the law contravenes article
14 of the constitution stipulating Iraqis are equal
regardless of gender, ethnicity, colour or
religion,” Mansoor emphasized.
On Wednesday, Christian MP Yonadim Kanna said
enacting this law is considered a retreat from the
democratic principles,www.ekurd.net
and the principles of
partnership and brotherhood in this country.
While UN envoy Staffan Di Mistura conceded
minorities were marginalised in the law, but he
vowed to support their demands representation
through negotiations with the independent High
Electoral Commission (IHEC) administering the local
polls.
Kirkuk city is historically a Kurdish city and it
lies just south border of the Kurdistan autonomous
region, the population is a mix of majority Kurds
and minority of Arabs,
Christians and Turkmen. lies 250 km northeast of
Baghdad. Kurds have a strong cultural and emotional
attachment to Kirkuk, which they call "the Kurdish
Jerusalem."
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution is related to
the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk city
and other disputed areas.
The article also calls for conducting a census to be
followed by a referendum to let the inhabitants
decide whether they would like Kirkuk to be annexed
to the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region or having
it as an independent province.
The former regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
had forced over 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up
their homes to Arabs in the 1970s, to "Arabize" the
city and the region's oil industry.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
VOI | Agencies
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