Friday, Aug 01, 2008

The Kirkuk issue has always been a major problem in Iraq. Recently, the Iraqi parliament had a tough time to approve the elections law because of the disagreement over voting in the disputed oil city of Kirkuk.

Finally, last Tuesday, the Iraqi parliament passed the law, setting guidelines for provincial elections, despite a boycott by Kurdish lawmakers.

Soon after the elections law was put to vote, the President of the Kurdish region, Massoud Barazani, rejected the resolution. Iraq's President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Adil Abdul Mehdi, his first deputy, also rejected the law. The third member of the Iraqi Presidential Council, Tarik Al Hashimi, was out of the country.

The Kurds were protesting the secret ballot setting out a power-sharing arrangement in the Kirkuk region, with Kurds, Turkmens and Arabs getting the same amount of power.

At one stage, some members of the parliament, including those belonging to the Kurdish alliance, Supreme Islamic Council, and Bader Organisation representatives walked out of parliament in protest against the draft law. As such, it was not put to vote as scheduled.

Later, the parliament continued its session and the elections law was put to vote. A majority of the lawmakers who stayed on voted for it.

After the first session of the parliament, held some years ago, this is the first time Iraq is facing a major political problem.

The Presidential Council will not convene, unless its three members are all present to reject the law. If that happens, the law will be returned to parliament once again as per the provisions of the Iraqi constitution.

© Gulf News 2008. All rights reserved.

 

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