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Iraq election law faces second veto
24.11.2009
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An Iraqi vice president has indicated he will veto
an election law for a second time, deepening
political uncertainty in a country struggling to
recover from years of war.
November 24, 2009
BAGHDAD,— Iraq cannot hold a national vote
scheduled for January on time, Iraq's election panel
said Tuesday, even as a vice president signaled he
would again veto an election law in a dispute whose
roots lie in Iraq's ethnic and sectarian divisions.
Iraq's constitution says the balloting must happen
in January, and a delay will deepen uncertainty in a
nation struggling to recover from years of war. Few
predict a return to the intense violence that
shattered Iraq, but profound mistrust among factions
has made it hard for its democratic institutions to
flourish.
"It is impossible to hold the elections in January
from the legal and logistical point of view," said
Qassim al-Aboudi, a senior official on the
Independent High Electoral Commission. "We are going
to wait for the result of the dispute before setting
another date."
Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni Arab, had
vetoed the law because he wanted more seats for
Iraqis abroad, most of whom are Sunnis who fled
sectarian bloodshed after the 2003 fall of Saddam
Hussein. Iraq's parliament amended the law Monday
with the backing of Shiite and Kurdish legislators,
but lawmakers from the Sunni Arab minority skipped
the vote,www.ekurd.netsaying
the Kurds stood to gain seats at their expense.
"What happened represents a dangerous precedent that
will negatively effect the whole political process,"
al-Hashemi's office said in a statement. "And those
who were behind this unfair and unconstitutional
amendment will be held responsible for the
consequences."
It said al-Hashemi "will deal with the new law as he
did withthe previous one to protect the national
interest and bolster democracy."
Al-Hashemi's spokesman, Abdul-Ilah Khazim, said the
vice president was likely to veto the law but
declined to confirm that he would. Al-Hashemi and
the two other members of the presidential council
have 10 days to use their individual veto power.
President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, said in a
statement that the election guidelines met the
aspirations of all Iraqis, "regardless of their
religion, sect or ethnicity," and he appealed to al-Hashemi
to accept the amended law.
The parliament can override a second veto with a
three-fifths majority of all 275 lawmakers. Iraq's
Shiites and Kurds make up about 80 percent of the
country's population and have enough lawmakers in
the legislature to override the veto and adopt the
law.
The dealmaking that led to the amended law largely
addressed complaints about the electoral system from
the powerful Kurdish bloc, guaranteeing their
support for the law. Lawmakers changed the basis for
distributing seats, most likely giving more seats to
the Kurds.
The number of seats in parliament will be expanded
to about 320 to reflect population growth.
The United States has tied the pace of withdrawal of
combat troops to the January date, though the U.S.
military says that schedule is on track for now.
Under a deal with Iraq, all American forces must be
out of Iraq by the end of 2011. President Obama has
said he will pull out combat troops by August, and
any delay could affect a possible military buildup
in Afghanistan.
"It is very important for Iraq's future that these
elections take place soon," U.S. Ambassador
Christopher Hill told reporters. Hill, who has
consulted with Iraqi lawmakers in recent days, said
the amended law reflected efforts to meet the
concerns of the vice president.
"I think this version does try to address the
question of out-of-country voters, which was an
issue very much on Mr. al-Hashemi's mind," he said.
"So I would just ask people to study this very
carefully and to understand that any law does
involve some tradeoffs."
The amendment reshuffles the distribution of seats
among Iraq's provinces, basing it on 2005 Trade
Ministry statistics plus a 2.8 percent annual
population growth, instead of the 2009 Trade
Ministry figures.
The Kurds, who would likely benefit from the amended
law, had threatened to boycott the elections if the
three provinces they control in northern Iraq are
not allocated more seats.
The amendment also says Iraqis living abroad will
have their votes counted toward their home province,
rather than allocating seats for voters outside
Iraq, as al-Hashemi had requested.
On Tuesday, about 500 Sunni Arabs gathered in the
northern city of Mosul, where insurgents retain a
foothold, to denounce the amended law because they
said it reduced the number of seats in their
province, Nineveh.
Some were angry at al-Hashemi, saying his veto had
backfired because it forced Shiites to make a deal
with Kurds against the Sunni Arabs.
Sunni Arabs are unlikely to sit out the 2010
elections, a tactic that would deprive them of
political clout. They boycotted Iraq's first
post-Saddam parliamentary election in January 2005
in a move that left them without much influence in a
legislature that drafted the country's constitution.
They took part in the Dec. 2005 election that
produced the present parliament.
Also Tuesday, a Sunni Arab cleric died when a bomb
planted in his car exploded in Saqlawiyah, west of
Baghdad, said police Col. Adil Hussein and Saeed
Mohammed, a tribal leader in the town.
The cleric, Ahmed Abdullah, had close links to the
Iraqi Islamic party, a Sunni party that has
cooperated with the Americans and the Shiite-led
government, and whose members have been targeted by
al-Qaida in Iraq.
Copyright, respective
author or news agency,
AP
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