Iraqi press criticizes Parl. over minorities

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Two Baghdad-based newspapers on Tuesday criticized what they described as the Iraqi Parliament’s handling of the minorities’ issue. Al-Ittihad newspaper, the daily mouthpiece of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) led by Iraqi President Jalal al-Talabani, published an article by Abdelhadi Mahdi in which he commented on the cancellation of Article 50, which specifies a quota for ethnic and religious minorities in provincial councils, from the controversial elections law. The author quoted religious and ethnic minorities as arguing that the procedure was not accompanied by cogent reasons, which he said has urged the representative of the UN secretary general for Iraq to call for its return. The article includes some of the constituents of Iraqi society, and its cancellation has given a negative impression to analysts and observers of the Iraqi political scene, according to the author. On the same subject, al-Khatwa newspaper, an independent weekly, wondered whether Iraqi parliamentarians are aware of the injustice that has befallen some segments of Iraqi society as a result of their decision. On September 24, the Iraqi Parliament unanimously voted on the contentious law on provincial council elections following months of fierce debate. The Parliament’s decision to remove Article 50 has sparked heated reactions from several political blocs representing the country’s Christians as well as other minorities. On July 22, the Iraqi Parliament, with the approval of 127 deputies out of 140 who attended the session, passed the law on provincial council elections, which includes an article postponing the elections in the city of Kirkuk. Lawmakers from the Kurdistan Alliance (KA) had withdrawn from the session in protest against Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani’s decision to have a secret balloting over article 24 of the law, pertaining to the status of Kirkuk. Balloting over all the other paragraphs of the law, however, was open. The Presidential Board, with the unanimity of President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies Adel Abdelmahdi and Tareq al-Hashimi, rejected the law in a rapid reaction one day after the Iraqi Parliament passed it during a session that raised hue and cry over its constitutionality. The law drew angry reactions from the Kurds, who considered the way the law was passed as a “twisting of the constitution,” threatening to use the right of veto, granted by the Iraqi constitution for the Presidential Board, headed by President Talabani, a Kurd, to reject the law and return it to the Parliament for debate. SS (I) 1