Election Law Still not passed in Iraq

Unless the law is changed so that voters vote for individual candidates there may be boycotts. The status of certain parts of the country especially disputed oil rich areas is also a big issue that does not seem close to being solved. There is no mention of the referendum on the SOFA agreement that was supposed to be voted on last August but was rescheduled to take place with the January elections. Perhaps it has been shelved again no doubt under pressure from the US. However, even if the SOFA was voted down it would have no effect immediately apparently. This is from the Washington Post.

Note how the article points out how the UN and US are trying to force the parties to get on with the election in spite of the fact that intractable problems stil remain. Obviously the US is comfortable enough with going with the old system if necessary in which individual candidates were not voted for only closd lists. Imagine such a system in the US! Glen Beck would be bellowing away nightly--and rightly so.

Election law stalls in Iraqi parliament

By Anthony Shadid and Nada Bakri
Tuesday, October 20, 2009

BAGHDAD -- The Iraqi parliament failed for a second time Monday to vote on an election law crucial for organizing elections in January that will choose a new parliament and serve as a milestone in American plans to withdraw combat troops from the country.

...."If they don't pass a new law, a curse is going to fall on the political parties," warned Safia Sahhal, a secular lawmaker. "Why? Because this is what Iraqis want."

"In a statement, U.S. Ambassador Christopher R. Hill and Gen. Ray Odierno, the American military commander here, had pushed lawmakers to pass the legislation last week. But lawmakers postponed Thursday's vote until Monday. Some predicted the vote could come again as early as Tuesday. Others said it might be weeks away.

Lawmakers resumed negotiations into the evening, as U.N. officials and representatives of the American Embassy lingered on the sidelines. These days, the most contentious issue has become Kirkuk, where parties fear the results could be used to reinforce their rivals' claims over the city.

....Arabs and Turkmens, on the other hand, have threatened to boycott the vote if the province isn't granted some kind of special status. U.S. officials see that as especially dangerous because it could deprive the election of legitimacy and aggravate tensions.

Another issue is how to organize the ballot -- whether voters will choose a single electoral list, individual candidates or a mixture of both.

At least publicly, most parties have backed a ballot of individual candidates -- a demand of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's leading Shiite cleric. That plan is popular, too, among a public growing more disenchanted with government ineffectiveness and corruption. But in private, many of the parties are thought to back a ballot of electoral lists, in which they would exercise far more control over who entered parliament.

If lawmakers cannot agree on new legislation, the election will be organized under a 2005 law by which voters chose only an electoral list, not individual candidates.