Iraqi Parliament to Vote on Election Law Next Week

Stratfor: Iraqi Parliament To Vote On Elections Law






July 7, 2008





Iraq’s
parliament on July 15 will vote on a draft provincial elections law,
Reuters reported July 7, citing Salim al-Jubouri, deputy head of the
parliament’s legal committee. Nearly all obstacles to passing the law
have been overcome, al-Jubouri said.

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Iraqi parliament to vote on election law next week

Mon Jul 7, 2008 12:44pm EDT

BAGHDAD, July
7 (Reuters) - Iraq's parliament will vote on a draft provincial
elections law on July 15, officials said on Monday, raising the
possibility the polls could still be held this year.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said the elections, seen as crucial to national reconciliation, would be held on Oct. 1.

But legislators said last month there was little chance of getting the
law passed soon enough to allow preparations for a vote by then because
of various disputes over the draft.

Salim al-Jubouri, a Sunni
Arab lawmaker and deputy leader of the parliamentary legal committee,
said nearly all obstacles had been overcome.

"The law is due to
be put before parliament at the soonest session, which is Tuesday next
week," Jubouri told Reuters. A parliamentary official also said the
vote would be held on July 15.

Iraq would have time to hold the
elections before the end of the year if parliament passed the law this
month, the U.N. special representative to Baghdad said last week.

The electoral commission has said it needs three months to prepare once the law has been passed.

Washington says the elections will promote reconciliation by boosting
the participation of minority Sunni Arabs in politics. Sunni Arabs
boycotted the last local polls in January 2005.

Analysts say the elections will also be the battleground for a fierce power struggle among majority Shi'ites.

Lawmakers have said debate on the law had bogged down over a dispute
between Arab and Kurdish lawmakers over what to do about voting in the
disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq.

Jubouri said Kirkuk was one of the main unresolved issues.

Minority Kurds, who run the largely autonomous northern Kurdistan
region, see Kirkuk as their ancient capital and want a constitutionally
mandated referendum to be held to decide who controls the city.

Arabs encouraged to move there under late Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein
want the city to stay under central Iraqi government control and have
been wary of a vote.

(Reporting by Wisam Mohammed, Writing by Dean Yates, Editing by Mark Trevelyan)









http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL07179642

Fingers crossed guys.

Adster wrote:Fingers crossed guys.

Adster, I'm trying to remember. Was the Election Law on of the laws that they were going to bundle for passage along with the Oil Law?

Yes, that was the idea. Both are US benchmarks. HCL has gone to a committee to be discussed further with regards outstanding points.

Adster wrote:Yes, that was the idea. Both are US benchmarks. HCL has gone to a committee to be discussed further with regards outstanding points.

Have they since decide not to try to pass them in unison?

Now that they have quelled the violence, this would go a long way to give the people a voice. They need this desperately if they want to keep the people on their side.

Howler wrote:Now that they have quelled the violence, this would go a long way to give the people a voice. They need this desperately if they want to keep the people on their side.

Yes, and given that the Sunni boycotted the 2005 election this would do much to bring them back into the fold. I'm betting they're not going to pull that bone head move twice.

Hey, any chance we could get the Democrats so upset that they'd boycott the general election this year?

now thats a plan!