Iraq delays provincial polls in reconciliation blow |
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BAGHDAD, Aug 7, 2008 (AFP) - Iraq on Thursday postponed provincial elections originally set for October after MPs failed to agree the necessary legislation in time, in a blow for US-backed efforts to consolidate national reconcilation.
"I can confirm to you that we have lost the chance to hold the elections in October," Qassem al-Aboudi, administrative director of Iraq's electoral commission, told AFP, following a meeting with the United Nations.
Iraq was due to go to the polls on October 1, but the long-awaited legislation that would govern the ballot has faced repeated delays over the political treatment of the disputed northern oil province of Kirkuk.
"We cannot hold an election in October because we need three months to prepare for the polls after the election law is passed," commission member Hamdiya Al-Husseinia said.
Parliament broke for summer recess on Wednesday without passing the contentious bill despite a new proposal put forward by the United Nations, which called for a year-long freeze on issues related to Kikurk.
The proposal, which called for the polls to be postponed in Kirkuk but go ahead on schedule in Iraq's 17 other provinces, failed to win approval from various Arab and Turkmen factions.
The controversy over Kirkuk, claimed by both Arabs and Kurds, has repeatedly dogged passage of the provincial elections bill, seen by Washington as key to consolidating Iraq's fledgling political process and reconciling its warring communities.
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