U.N. presents new proposal to solve Kirkuk cause, says lawmaker

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Independent Lawmaker, Hussein al-Falluji, said on Tuesday that the U.N. has presented a new proposal to solve the Kirkuk cause within the election law. “The United Nations presents a new proposal that would see elections going ahead in Kirkuk on the same day as the rest of the country,” al-Falluji told IraqiNews.com news agency. The U.N. proposal envisages current voter records being used in the Kirkuk vote but that these would then be updated after the election, scheduled for January 16. “The proposal is weak and I do not think it will be adopted,” he said. The main dispute centered on the distribution of votes in the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk, a point of contention between the various ethnic communities in Iraq. Kurds have long demanded be incorporated in their autonomous region in the north despite the opposition of its Arab and Turkmen communities. Ad Melkert, the U.N. special envoy to Iraq, called on lawmakers to work quickly to make sure necessary legislation is in place for the January elections. Arabs and Turkmen insist to give Kirkuk a special status, while Kurds reject that. SH (P) 1