Certain group stalls political process – Kurdish lawmaker

BAGHDAD, Sept. 21 (Iraqi News) – A Kurdish legislator on Sunday said that a consensus solution over the provincial elections bill failed as a group of lawmakers want the political process to fail, explaining that the Kurdish side agreed to offer “large concessions” to reach such a solution. “When we had a meeting to vote on the bill, lawmakers of from other blocs denied their signatures that proved the proposed bill, and demanded to leave the meeting room,” Fouad Maasoum, the head of the Kurdistan Alliance (KA) at the Iraqi Council of Representatives, told IraqiNews.com – Voices of Iraq – (Iraqi News). “All what this group is doing is to find problems to stall the process,” he said, adding, “We have offered large concessions and showed utmost flexibility to reach a consensus formula for elections bill”. “We consider this law an essential pillar of the political process,” he noted. After some members of parliament withdrew, the House Speaker, Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, decided to postpone today’s session to vote on provincial elections bill for 30 minutes, then until tomorrow. MH (P)/AmR 1