Kurdish lawmaker attributes hindering elections bill to ‘illegal demands’

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: MP from the Kurdistan Alliance (KA), Muhsen al-Saadon, said Thursday that Arab and Turcoman lawmakers’ illegal demands regarding Kirkuk stand behind hindering the approval of the elections bill. “The illegal demands by Arab and Turcoman lawmakers regarding finding a special status for Kirkuk stand behind hindering the approval of the elections draft law,” al-Saadon told Iraqi News, threatening that the KA will demand a special status for Mosul and Diala in case these demands continue. There is growing appetite among local groups for a compromise solution that involves Kirkuk being declared a special region that is neither within the Kurdistan RegionG nor directly administered from Baghdad. He called for holding elections throughout Iraq by the same elections law. The parliamentary elections will be held on January 16, 2010. SH (P) 1