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Iraq election chief, US pressure lawmakers
on vote
30.10.2009
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October
30, 2009
BAGHDAD, — Iraq's electoral authorities and
U.S. officials urged the Iraqi parliament on
Thursday to overcome disagreements over the disputed
city of Kirkuk and pass a law needed for elections
to take place next year.
The election law has been mired in a dispute over
how to conduct the vote in Kirkuk, a city sitting on
vast oil resources that ethnic Kurds claim as their
ancestral home and want wrapped into their
semi-autonomous northern enclave.
Kirkuk's Arabs and Turkmen oppose Kurdish aims, and
the city is one of several flashpoints that could
lead to violence between Baghdad's Arab-led
government and Kurds who have enjoyed a large degree
of independence since the first Gulf war in 1991.
Faraj al-Haidari, the head of the Iraqi electoral
commission, warned lawmakers squabbling over the law
that his agency needed enough time to organise the
parliamentary elections currently scheduled for Jan.
16.
"We want parliament to send us at the beginning of
next week the points that have been agreed on so
that we can accomplish some of the steps in the
electoral process while we wait for them to agree on
the election law itself," Haidari said.
He said parliament had about a week left to decide
on a new law, or whether to use an old law from the
2005 national poll that is widely viewed as
unsatisfactory. If parliament delayed beyond a week,www.ekurd.netthe
vote might have to be delayed, he said.
The election is a milestone as Iraq emerges from
more than six years of sectarian violence triggered
by the U.S. invasion.
It will decide who will lead Iraq as U.S. forces
draw down ahead of a full withdrawal in 2011, and
who will preside over potential multibillion dollar
deals with global oil companies to develop Iraq's
oil reserves, the world's third largest.
COMPROMISE PROPOSALS
DISMISSED
A number of compromises submitted by the United
Nations and a council headed by Shi'ite Arab Prime
Minister Nuri al-Maliki, and President Jalal
Talabani, a Kurd, have been rejected.
"The future of Iraq depends on the Iraqi leadership
and people," the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Chris
Hill, and the U.S. military commander, General Ray
Odierno, said in a statement.
"We urge Iraq's political leaders to work out their
differences and take swift action to do what is in
the best interest of the Iraqi people so they may
exercise their democratic rights on January 16,
2010."
The dispute traces its roots to a campaign of "Arabisation"
carried out by late dictator Saddam Hussein to
dilute Kurdish influence in Kirkuk by encouraging
Iraqi Arabs to settle there.
Arabs say Kurdish authorities have since been trying
to reclaim Kirkuk by persuading Kurds to move there.
For the coming election, Arab and Turkmen
politicians from Kirkuk want to use electoral rolls
that predate the arrival of large numbers of Kurds.
Kurds want updated voter rolls.
Kurdish lawmakers -- some pushing for the ultimate
destiny of Kirkuk to be decided through the election
law -- stood firm.
"We will not go to the parliament session if we are
asked to vote on multiple options for Kirkuk. The
Kurdish list will boycott the session," said Kurdish
lawmaker Khalid Shwani.
Copyright, respective
author or news agency,
Reuters
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