Presidency will not veto election law – MP

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Independent lawmaker, Ezzat al-Shabandar, ruled out on Tuesday that the presidency would veto the election law. “I do not think that the presidency will veto the election law even if it has reservation on one of its articles,” al-Shabandar told IraqiNews.com news agency. On Sunday (Nov. 7), the parliament approved the long-delayed crucial election law ahead of the national polls due in January 2010. The law was passed by a wide majority of 141 of 196 lawmakers present after weeks of deadlock on a range of issues, including the distribution of seats in oil-rich Kirkuk and how candidates are to be listed on ballot papers. It stipulates that in Kirkuk and other provinces where there is dispute over electoral roles because of the ethnic mix of the area the results would be provisional. The law also stipulates that electoral lists printed on ballot papers would include names of candidates as opposed to showing only anonymous party blocks. SH (S) /SR 1