Signatures collected to turn Basra into region

BASRA / IraqiNews.com: A total of 34 centers have been inaugurated throughout Basra to collect signatures to turn the province into a region, according to the head of the Independent Electoral Commission. “The signature-collecting campaign will last until January 14, 2009, after which period a referendum will be conducted on the issue,” Hazem al-Rubaie told IraqiNews.com. MP Wail Abdelateef said that he had delivered a petition of more than 34,000 signatures to the electoral commission, calling to turn Basra province into a region. Basra, 590 km (340 miles) south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, has an estimated metropolitan population of 2,300,000 in 2008. SS (P)/SR 1