KA agrees to give Kirkuk special status – MP

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: Lawmaker from the Iraqi Accord Front, Rashied Azzawi, said on Tuesday that the Kurdistan Alliance (KA) agreed to give Kirkuk a special status within the election law. “I expect to reach an agreement on Kirkuk within the coming hours, noting that Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds agreed to give Kirkuk a special status,” the lawmaker told IraqiNews.com news agency. “The disagreement still exists on the additional seats,” he explained. “The quota system will be a problem for Arabs and Turkmen, and this is the reason some of them do not want it,” he added. Throughout the past week, the Iraqi Parliament has failed to pass the elections bill due to differences over the status of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in the law on parliamentary elections, scheduled to be held on January 16, 2010. The Kurds, who form the majority of the population in Kirkuk, have long demanded that the province be incorporated in their autonomous region in the north despite the opposition of its Arab and Turkmen communities. The political deadlock threatens the poll as the electoral law is supposed to be in place 90 days before voting takes place. Constitutionally, the election must be held by January 31. SH (S)/SR 1