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Iraqi VP Al-Hashemi Vetoes Elections law
Iraqi Vice President Tareq Al-Hashemi went ahead with his threat and vetoed the elections law, on the grounds that it did not offer enough seats to Iraqis living outside the country.
Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki denounced the veto as a serious threat to the political process and to the overall democratic progress in the country.
As a result of the veto, the Elections Commission has announced the suspension of its activities, and there are serious doubts whether the elections can be held on time.
One of the serious ramifications of the veto is that the parliament must take up the elections law again. While the parliament could limit its deliberations to Clause No. 1, that deals with the allocation of seats to Iraqis abroad, there is a real concern that the debate could open a Pandora's box with the revival of old issues, such as that relating to Kirkuk, or raising new ones, particularly the demand by the Kurds that the formula for allocating the seats among the provinces has unjustly deprived the Kurdish region of fair and equitable number of seats that it is entitled to based on their estimates of the Kurdish population in the three Kurdish provinces.
[The seats were allocated on the basis of the rationing cards issued to the individual residents in the provinces. It was known during the Saddam regime that rationing cards were denied to the Kurds while multiple cards may have been issued to the regime's supporters. The Kurds believe that they got the short end of the stick and they are threatening to boycott the elections unless a fairer system of seat allocation can be agreed upon.
If parliament fails to act expeditiously on the issue of seats allocated to Iraqis living outside the country, Iraq could enter a period of severe political instability and perhaps even the renewal of sectarian violence.]
Sources: Al-Mada; Al-Sabah; Al-Zaman, Iraq; Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, London, November 19, 2009
Posted at: 2009-11-19
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