Iraqi election law - Tag Search

As we reported yesterday, U.S. vice president Joe Biden is in Baghdad meeting with Iraqi officials. Two posts this morning on his visit: First, an assessment of the trip from Biden's national security adviser, Antony Blinken; second, reactions from Iraqi media, which have been pretty brutal.

Biden had dinner last night with Christopher Hill, the U.S. ambassador in Iraq, and Gen. Ray Odierno, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq. He'll hold individual meetings today with Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, parliament speaker Ayad al-Sammaraie, and president Jalal Talabani; and then a larger meeting of lower-level officials, including deputy prime ministers Rafi al-Issawi and Roush Shaways.

A series of coordinated attacks -- including at least suicide bombing -- went off across Baghdad today, leaving more than 100 dead and scores more wounded.

There are conflicting reports on exactly where the bombs went off. At least three car bombs exploded in western Baghdad, reportedly near the offices of the labor, interior and finance ministries, according to an interior ministry official. Another exploded near the main courthouse serving western Baghdad, and near Zawra Park, home of the Baghdad Zoo.

Aswat al-Iraq reports that bombers also struck the Fine Arts Institute, and the market in Baghdad's al-Shourja neighborhood.

We spoke too soon yesterday when we declared "another missed deadline" for the Iraqi parliament. After a marathon late-night session, parliament approved a final law, which now goes to the presidency council for approval.

The final law appears to overcome the objections of Iraqi vice president Tariq al-Hashimi, who previously threatened to veto the law over its distribution of parliamentary seats. Still, as Ernesto Londono reports in the Washington Post, the new law is still not universally popular.

Reidar Visser calls it a "bazaar-style compromise," and has some interesting thoughts on the political wrangling that led to this point.

Late February elections now appear likely, with the United Nations suggesting Feb. 27.

After the jump: A statement from the White House, and a translated statement from Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, who praised the final election law.

Iraq's parliament held an emergency session today to discuss amendments to the election law approved on Nov. 23. Today's session came after parliament failed to reach a quorum yesterday to discuss the law.

Ayad al-Sammaraie, Iraq's parliament speaker, said today that there is "preliminary agreement" on an amended law. But Al-Jazeera reports that Iraqi MPs have "missed their deadline" to agree on changes to that law, which means (I believe) that the original Nov. 23 law leaves parliament and heads to the presidency council for approval.

Al-Hashimi has already threatened to veto the amended law -- though he seemed to back away from those claims last week.

Iraqi vice president Tariq al-Hashimi says he won't decide until Sunday whether he plans to veto Iraq's amended election law.

Today was supposed to be the deadline for Hashimi's announcement: The amended law was passed on Nov. 23, and Iraqi law grants a 10-day window for vetoing new legislation. But the Iraqi judicial council decided to extend that window, since today is a Friday, the Muslim holy day. (Sunday is the next working day in Iraq.)

AP says the delay means "chances appear to be dimming" for January elections, which is laughably optimistic. There's virtually no chance of a January election. Faraj al-Haidari, the head of Iraq's electoral commission, said today that February elections are likely. The United Nations is also pushing for a February vote.

(Updated below) A mysterious "Saddam Channel" appeared on Iraqi televisions this weekend, broadcasting photographs of the late Iraqi dictator and audio recordings of his speeches. The channel is alternately called Al-Lafeta ("The Banner") and Al-Arabi ("The Arab").

The Associated Press tracked down an Algerian man living in Damascus, Mohammed Jarboua, who claims to be the channel's "chairman" and says he has employees in four countries. But Jarboua has apparently gone to great lengths to conceal where the channel is headquartered -- or, more importantly, how it's funded.

Tariq al-Hashimi, the Iraqi vice president who prompted the recent election law crisis by vetoing the original law on Nov. 18, is backing away from his threat to veto the amended law.

A spokesman for al-Hashimi, Abdul Elah Kadhum, said the vice president reached a deal with parliament and various political parties. Details of the deal aren't yet available, but Kadhum said it "find[s] mechanisms to ensure seats are not taken away from any provinces." That would address one of Al-Hashimi's main complaints about the amended law: that it removes parliamentary seats from majority-Sunni provinces.

Tariq al-Hashimi issued a statement today (عربي) to complain about the amended Iraqi election law. He described it as unconstitutional, and "more unfair" than the old law, and promised to veto it.

Barham Salih, meanwhile -- the prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan -- said the Kurds approved of the amended law. (Interestingly, no official statement yet from Nouri al-Maliki.)

Is it just me, or did al-Hashimi get the worst possible outcome here? Refugees will get to vote, but they don't get a special set-aside. And the new apportionment scheme for seats in parliament will hurt the Sunnis (and empower the Kurds, who previously threatened a boycott over what they considered an unfair apportionment).

Oh. and Faraj al-Haidari, the head of Iraqi's electoral commission, said today that the Jan. 23 election will definitely be delayed. Al-Haidari will get the blame.

Al-Haidari's announcement means elections won't happen until February: The Shi'a festival of Arba'een falls on Jan. 25, so the government can't schedule elections for several days after that date. The current Iraqi government's mandate ends on Jan. 31, so a caretaker government might have to be appointed until the elections are complete.

Iraq's January 21 election appears headed for an almost certain delay -- which means Pentagon officials will likely step up their calls for a delayed withdrawal from Iraq.

Regular readers are probably familiar with the backstory, so you can skip down to the analysis. But if you're new to the excitement that is the Iraqi election law debate: Iraq's parliament passed an election law earlier this month to great fanfare (and congratulations from President Obama).

But last week, Tariq al-Hashimi -- one of Iraq's vice presidents, and a Sunni Arab -- vetoed the law. Al-Hashimi thought it didn't do enough to protect the rights of the two million Iraqi refugees (many of them Sunnis) living abroad, mostly in Syria and Jordan.

(Updated below) We'll update this thread as more details become available, but Iraq's parliament just adjourned after amending the election law. The amendments don't really address vice president Tariq al-Hashimi's concerns, so another veto is possible.

Still no movement on the Iraqi election law, though Aswat al-Iraq is reporting that parliament could vote within a matter of hours.

Separately: Ali al-Dabbagh, a spokesman for the Iraqi government, said yesterday that the October 25 bombers came from Syria. But he stopped short of accusing Syria of harboring terrorists (which the Iraqi government did do after the August ministry bombings).

"The group came from Syria but we are not accusing Syria again," al-Dabbagh said.

[...] "We have proof that condemns all those who justify terrorist acts from groups based in Syria... I imagine that there are some countries in the area that support these people because those countries until now are not convinced that these groups could be a danger to them."

Three men have reportedly confessed to plotting the October attacks. The men are Ba'athists; two of them were former officers from Saddam Hussein's army. They claimed a Saudi national helped them carry out the attacks.

Iraq's parliament met today to try and resolve the impasse created by vice president Tariq al-Hashimi's election law veto.

The result? Not much: Parliament postponed until tomorrow its vote on al-Hashimi's proposed amendment to the law. Khalid al-Attiya, the deputy speaker of parliament, said he's confident the issue "will be resolved" tomorrow.

A group of Iraqi lawmakers plans to meet privately with al-Hashimi to persuade him to drop his veto. But al-Hashimi said yesterday (عربي) that he vetoed the law because he considers it unconstitutional, so it seems unlikely he'll change his mind.

Here's a link to the full statement (عربي) of Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki on vice president Tariq al-Hashimi's election law veto. (The text doesn't seem to show up properly in Firefox, but if you hit Ctrl-A to select everything, you should see it.)

As we mentioned earlier, Maliki says he's surprised by the decision, which he says poses a "serious threat to the political process and democracy."

He also calls on the Iraqi people to resist the "enemies of Iraq," who are trying to "disrupt the march towards democracy."

(Updated below) Iraqi vice president Tariq al-Hashimi has officially objected (عربي) to part of Iraq's new election law, which effectively vetoes the law as it is currently written.

Al-Hashimi, you'll recall, raised concerns this weekend that the law is unfair to the 2 million Iraqi refugees living overseas.

His objection sends the law back to Iraq's parliament, which must now approve Al-Hashimi's amendments and send them off for ratification.

You probably thought the Iraqi government was done haggling over its election law. Wrong!

Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reports this morning that Tariq al-Hashimi, one of Iraq's vice presidents, will not ratify the election law (عربي) as it's currently written. Al-Hashimi says he's unhappy with the paragraph on refugees.

Okay, as promised, some more detail on this afternoon's "Iraq in 2020" panel at the Middle East Institute conference. The whole concept was something of a conceit -- as a reader pointed out, there's a lot of uncertainty about Iraq in 2010 -- so most of the panel focused on shorter-term concerns.

I complained earlier about the lack of focus on economics. The panel mostly focused on politics and diplomacy -- how Iraqis will reconcile internally, and how they'll relate to their neighbors (and the U.S.) externally. What really struck me was the divergence between the American panelists, who tended to be more optimistic about the future, and the Iraqi panelists, who seemed pessimistic about intractable problems of Iraqi governance.

One of the best things about leaving town for the weekend is coming home to 681 unread items in Google Reader. Oy. I flagged a bunch of items that looked interesting, and I'll try to catch up on blogging them over the next few days.

The biggest news this weekend was the Iraqi parliament's long-overdue vote on a new election law. The law passed, setting the stage for parliamentary elections on Jan. 16, 2010.

At the airport and blogging from my iPhone so this will be quick. But wire services are reporting that Iraq's electoral commission has formally asked to delay the January election because parliament missed the deadline for passing the election law.

"The delay in approving the electoral law has put us in an unenviable position," said Faraj al-Haidari, the commission's head. "The delay and insistence of political leaders not to postpone the election will force us to leave out some of the procedures required, making our preparations incomplete and making them fall short of international standards."

Parliament is expected to vote on the electoral law tomorrow, but Haidari had warned them earlier this week that Thursday was the commission's deadline.

A reader passes along the news, which I missed, that Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani is in Baghdad for a four-day visit.

Larijani is reportedly "mediating" between Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki and Ammar Al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq. Hakim formed a coalition earlier this year, the Iraqi National Alliance, with Moqtada al-Sadr's movement; Maliki broke away from that Shi'ite alliance -- or was forced out, depending on who you ask -- and formed his own State of Law coalition.

By encouraging reconciliation between Maliki and Hakim, Larijani is trying to create a united Shi'ite front in the 2010 election.

Aswat al-Iraq reports that the Iraqi parliament has reached a deal on the election law. The final remaining issue had been Kirkuk's voter registration list. Lawmakers reportedly agreed to use the 2009 voter list, a decision favored by Kurdish lawmakers; in return, Arab and Turkmen parties will receive an extra seat from the "national seats" bloc of the Iraqi parliament (see this PDF for an explanation of Iraq's complicated parliamentary structure).

The full parliament will vote on the compromise measure on Saturday. They would have voted today, but... not enough lawmakers showed up to declare a quorum.