Open list system is demand by Kurdistan people as well as all Iraqis – MP

ARBIL / IraqiNews.com: The endorsement of the open list system in the forthcoming parliamentary elections is an option preferable by the Kurdistan people as well as all Iraqi citizens, Iraqi lawmaker Sami al-Atroushi said on Thursday. “The Kurdistan Islamic Union will vote in favor of the adoption of the open list system as the best option to communicate with the voters and revive their confidence in the political process and parliament,” Atroushi, a member of the Iraqi parliament from the KIU bloc, told IraqiNews.com news agency. “That particular system would enable the voters to pick their representatives based on standards of efficiency and integrity,” he added. The Iraqi parliament is debating amendments to the old election law endorsed in 2005 in a bid to address its flaws. The political blocs are now focusing on the adoption of the open list system instead of the closed one in the new law, set quotas for ethnic and religious minorities and overcome the problem of holding elections in the disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk, 250 km northeast of Baghdad. AmR (P) 1