Hakim calls to expand Provincial Councils’ powers

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) The head of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, Ammar al-Hakim, called the Iraqi Parliament to speed up amending the Provincial Council law, No. 21 for 2008 and expand its authorities.

Hakim said during the ceremony of announcing the Citizen Coalition on Saturday “We renew our call to expand the powers of the provincial councils and the local governments in accordance with the constitution which guaranteed large authorities for those councils,” noting “But, the laws that were enacted in this regard did not grant these constitutional authorities, so we urge the parliament to accelerate the amendment on the PC Law to be utilized in serving the citizens.”

He continued saying “As for the forgery, it represents major premonition in every electoral process, therefore the Independent High Electoral Commission and the concerned authorities should safeguard the transparency and the scrutiny of the upcoming local elections.”

Hakim called “The electrical entities to keep away from the defamation and abuses during launching the electoral propaganda.”

The head of the SIIC urged “The masses to widely participate in the next provincial elections to prove faith in the new political process, despite the previous negatives in the political process.”

“The programme of the Citizen Coalition focuses primarily on fighting corruption, waste of public money and resolving the housing crisis and unemployment through activating the private sector and the investments, he added.

Hakim called on “The Citizen Coalition’s nominees to adhere to the motto of the Coalition which is (My province first) and to demonstrate their genuine political will away from the tensions and disputes and to embody this motto in their performance and programmes.”