Iraq signs provincial election law

IRAQ:IRAQ'S THREE-MEMBER presidency council has signed the provincial election law approved by parliament last month.

The belated adoption of the law is seen by Washington as a major step in the process of reconciling Iraq's Shia and Sunni Arab and Kurdish communities. Sunnis, in particular, stand to gain by securing seats in provincial councils dominated by ruling Shia parties that took power in the 2005 election boycotted by Sunnis and followers of dissident Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

Provincial polls, originally scheduled for October 1st, can go ahead before the end of January 2009 in 14 of the country's 18 pro- vinces. A seven-member parliamentary committee, consisting of two Kurds, two Arabs, two Turkmen and one Christian, has been established to work out by the end of March 2009 a power-sharing deal for the province of Tamim, the capital of which is the disputed city of Kirkuk. Voters are unlikely to go to the polls in the three provinces constituting the autonomous Kurdish region ruled by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdish Democratic Party.

The law, a compromise between federalists who seek devolution and centralists who are determined to concentrate power in Baghdad, was formally approved by Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and his two deputies, Tareq al-Hashemi, a Sunni, and Adel Abdul Mahdi, a Shia. Mr Talabani vetoed the Bill last July because it covered Kirkuk, which the Kurds seek to annex to their region in spite of Arab and Turkmen objections.

While the members of the presidency council accepted the law as it stands, they asked parliament to reinstate the provision giving Christians, Turkmen and other minority groups reserved seats on the councils.

The law gives women 25 per cent representation on the councils and allows voters to choose among individual candidates rather than vote for party or faction lists as they did in 2005.