.Iraq election law could fail over Kirkuk: speaker
BAGHDAD — Iraqi plans to update an election law to adopt a more open voting system may fail because issues over disputed Kirkuk province remain unresolved, the parliamentary speaker warned on Monday.
Iyad al-Samarrai said MPs may have to fall back on existing legislation that utilises a more opaque process which only names electoral lists, but not candidates standing for office.
"Members of parliament will be obliged to fall back on the old law -- that is the reality" if Kirkuk's status is not resolved, Samarrai said in a statement on the website of the Islamic Party, a Sunni grouping of which he is a member.
He said Arabs and Turkmen in Kirkuk did not accept Kurdish claims of demographic superiority.
Iraqi Kurds have long striven to expand their northern territory beyond its current three provinces to other areas where the population was historically Kurdish, leading to a dispute with Baghdad over a tract of land centred around the oil-rich province of Kirkuk.
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution calls for a referendum to decide Kirkuk's fate, which Kurds have long wanted to make the capital of their autonomous north, an aim strongly opposed by the province's Arab and Turkmen.
Parliament is set to discuss the election law on Wednesday, ahead of nation-wide legislative polls on January 16.
Samarrai called on "all factions to find a solution" so that MPs could discuss the new law.
MPs moved this month to adopt the controversial closed voting system, which would list parties contesting the election without disclosing the individuals vying to take up seats in parliament.
The proposal triggered an intervention from Iraq's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani, who called for lawmakers to accept an open process for the elections.
More than 1,000 Iraqis took to the streets on Saturday to protest the move towards a closed voting system.
A closed list was used in national elections in January 2005, the first to take place after now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein's ouster following the US-led invasion of 2003.
However, an open system listing the names of candidates and their parties was used in provincial polls held last January that were won by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's allies.
The UN's envoy in Iraq on Sunday called on MPs to "clarify the legal framework for the elections in the coming week" and expressed concern the issue had not yet been resolved.
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Iyad al-Samarrai said MPs may have to fall back on existing legislation that utilises a more opaque process which only names electoral lists, but not candidates standing for office.
"Members of parliament will be obliged to fall back on the old law -- that is the reality" if Kirkuk's status is not resolved, Samarrai said in a statement on the website of the Islamic Party, a Sunni grouping of which he is a member.
He said Arabs and Turkmen in Kirkuk did not accept Kurdish claims of demographic superiority.
Iraqi Kurds have long striven to expand their northern territory beyond its current three provinces to other areas where the population was historically Kurdish, leading to a dispute with Baghdad over a tract of land centred around the oil-rich province of Kirkuk.
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution calls for a referendum to decide Kirkuk's fate, which Kurds have long wanted to make the capital of their autonomous north, an aim strongly opposed by the province's Arab and Turkmen.
Parliament is set to discuss the election law on Wednesday, ahead of nation-wide legislative polls on January 16.
Samarrai called on "all factions to find a solution" so that MPs could discuss the new law.
MPs moved this month to adopt the controversial closed voting system, which would list parties contesting the election without disclosing the individuals vying to take up seats in parliament.
The proposal triggered an intervention from Iraq's top Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani, who called for lawmakers to accept an open process for the elections.
More than 1,000 Iraqis took to the streets on Saturday to protest the move towards a closed voting system.
A closed list was used in national elections in January 2005, the first to take place after now-executed dictator Saddam Hussein's ouster following the US-led invasion of 2003.
However, an open system listing the names of candidates and their parties was used in provincial polls held last January that were won by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's allies.
The UN's envoy in Iraq on Sunday called on MPs to "clarify the legal framework for the elections in the coming week" and expressed concern the issue had not yet been resolved.
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