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Tuesday, October 7, 2008

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Veto a setback for Iraqi elections

Chicago Tribune

2008-07-24

BAGHDAD — Iraq's presidency council vetoed a newly approved provincial election law, casting doubt on the possibility that local elections will be held this year. U.S. officials have said the vote is key for the stabilization of Iraq.

The veto came after Iraqi President Jalal Talabani denounced the law, siding with fellow Kurds who walked out of parliament Tuesday over a controversial provision that would delay elections in the disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk and place its province under joint control of Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen, via a quota system.

Talabani and Shiite Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi both signed the veto letter. Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashimi was out of the country, members of parliament said. Lawmakers said the bill would come to another vote within the next week, as the sides struggled to meet a deadline for starting preparations to hold local elections by late December. But the chances of compromise appeared slim as the various factions in the debate clung to their positions about Kirkuk.

The quarrel goes to the heart of tensions in northern Iraq between Kurds and Arabs. The late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein displaced thousands of Kurds from Kirkuk and parts of Nineveh and Diyala provinces as part of a wider plan to settle Arabs in those areas. Whether the contested lands will belong to Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region or fall within the boundaries of the rest of Iraq remains an explosive issue. Kurds insist Kirkuk should be part of Kurdistan.

"The law in its passed form ... chooses national and sectarian isolation and increases the [religious] fundamentalism," Talabani said in a statement explaining his reasoning for rejecting the legislation. He warned that the law "hurt in a major way the national unity."

Now the bill will be handed back to the parliament for another vote. If the presidency council rejects the legislation a second time, the law requires a three-fifths majority to pass. Shiite lawmaker Qassim Daoud, who is sympathetic to the Kurds, said failure to reach a compromise jeopardizes the security gains of the past year.

"It is a fragile status we have now. A delay could affect it negatively, and we don't want this to happen," he said.

The White House urged local elections by the end of the year, news services reported.

U.S. officials have long lobbied for provincial elections in Iraq on the theory it would increase the loyalty of a greater portion of the population.

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