Lawmakers say election law will not solve Kirkuk cause

BAGDHAD / IraqiNews.com: Parliamentarians from different political blocs believe that the Kirkuk cause could not be solved within the elections law, while others warned against not reaching an agreement on that law. MP from the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), Nada al-Sudani, said “there is no solution for the Kirkuk cause within the current elections law,” asserting that the only solution is to hold a new census. “We should deal with the Kirkuk cause separately than the elections law as there is a real crisis to solving this issue now,” she told IraqiNews.com news agency. The coming parliamentary elections will be held next January 16. Parliament should finalize enacting the election law in order to enable the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) to make elections’ instructions. For his part, MP from the Communist party, Hamid Majied Moussa, said that the election law is not the right tool to solve the Kirkuk cause as it should be finalized by the Iraqi constitution. “Dealing with Kirkuk within the election law as the rest of Iraq’s provinces is a normal thing and is compatible with the rule of the federal court,” he added. “The best solution is to make Iraq one constituency to get rid of discrimination among Iraqis because all voters will vote as Iraqis,” he said. Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution is related to the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk city and other disputed areas. Kurds seek to include the city in the autonomous Iraq’s Kurdistan region, while Sunni Muslims, Turkmen and Shiites oppose the incorporation. The article currently stipulates that all Arabs in Kirkuk be returned to their original locations in southern and central Iraqi areas, and formerly displaced residents returned to Kirkuk, 250 km northeast of Baghdad. The article also calls for conducting a census to be followed by a referendum to let the inhabitants decide whether they would like Kirkuk to be annexed to the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region or having it as an independent province. These stages were supposed to end on December 31, 2007, a deadline that was later extended to six months to end on June 30 2008. For his part, MP from the United Iraqi Alliance, Hamied Maali, agreed with other lawmakers that solving the Kirkuk issue in the parliamentary elections should be done through “cooperating with it as the rest of provinces, as it a complicated issue and needs more time.” “Elections should be held in Kirkuk as it is not fair not to hold the elections in the province and we cant stop elections in all provinces for the sake of one province. On the other hand, representatives of Kirkuk in Parliament, have a different opinion. Turkumen’s representative from the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), Abbas al-Bayati said “Kirkuk cause is very sensitive and complicated and we should not ignore it.” “Postponing elections in Kirkuk is not the best solution,” he asserted. Meanwhile, representative of the Kirkuk province, Lawmaker from the Arab bloc, Abd Mutlak al-Jabouri threatened to boycott elections in Kirkuk unless the region is given a special treatment as there are big violations happened in Kirkuk. On the other side, MP from the Kurdistan Alliance (KA), Youssef Ahmad, responded to Mutlak by saying that “the KA and the Kurdish people will boycott the elections in case the province was given a special status within the coming parliamentary elections law.” “Most of the parliamentary blocs will deal with Kirkuk just like the rest of the Iraqi provinces,” Ahmad said. Other lawmakers warned against not reaching a political agreement on the election law. Member of the Iraqi List, Usama al-Nujiefi, told IraqiNews.com news agency that “the law is still facing some difficulties but we hope to reach an agreement on it soon.” SH (R)/SR 2