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Talabani, Barzani discuss local elections law
26.7.2008
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July
26, 2008
BAGHDAD, — Iraqi President Jalal Talabani met
in Baghdad with Iraqi Kurdistan Region President
Massoud Barzani to discuss the provincial councils
elections law,
approved by parliament
on Tuesday and objected by the Iraqi president and
his two deputies on Wednesday.
"Talabani received Barzani, who arrived in the Iraqi
capital on Friday, at his office in Baghdad and had
consultations over the unconstitutional and illegal
passing of the local councils elections law at
parliament as well as security and political
developments in the country," according to a
statement by Talabani's office on Saturday.
The two Kurdish leaders agreed to intensify
discussions and consultations with all Iraqi
political actors regarding the law.
The Iraqi parliament had passed on Tuesday a law on
provincial councils elections, which includes an
article delaying the local elections in Kirkuk
indefinitely,www.ekurd.net
with the approval of 127
out of 140 members of parliament that attended the
session. |
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani (L) and Iraq's
Kurdistan region President Massoud Barzani, in
Baghdad 26 July |
Lawmakers from the Kurdistan Coalition (KC), the
second largest bloc with 53 out of a total 275
seats, had withdrawn from the session in protest
against Speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani's decision to
have a secret balloting over article 24 of the law,
pertaining to the Kirkuk status. Balloting over all
the other paragraphs of the law, however, was open.
The presidential board, with the unanimity of
President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies Adel
Abdelmahdi and Tareq al-Hashimi, had rejected on
Wednesday the law on provincial councils elections
law in a rapid reaction one day after the Iraqi
parliament passed it during a session that raised
hue and cry over its constitutionality.
The law drew angry reactions on the part of the
Kurds who considered the way the law was passed as a
"twisting of the constitution," threatening to use
the right of veto, granted by the Iraqi constitution
for the presidential board,www.ekurd.net
headed by President
Talabani, a Kurd, to reject the law and send it back
to the parliament for debate.
The local elections should be held by the end of
this year. All political blocs agreed on a new law
on elections, hoped by the Iraqi government and
other political parties to help end violence in the
country through containing a number of armed groups
into the current political process.
The elections are of paramount importance. The
results could help establish new provinces in Iraq
within preparations to apply the federal system
urged by some political blocs.
The system is facing objection by other blocs on the
grounds that it would lead to dividing the nation
into three regions: one in the north for Kurds, the
second in the southern and central provinces for the
majority Shiite population and the third for
provinces inhabited by Sunni Arab population like
al-Anbar, Salah al-Din, Diala and some areas in
Ninewa.
Earlier in the day, A Sunni bloc leader urged the
Iraqi parliament to sack President Jalal Talabani
for tackling the elections law on a "racist not
national basis," while a Kurdish bloc spokesman said
"Talabani is a legitimate elected president".
"Talabani has dealt with the elections law from a
racist partisan background, not from a national one.
Accordingly, he's not qualified to lead Iraq and we
demand the parliament to immediately sack him," MP
Khalaf al-Alyan, the leader of the National Dialogue
Council (NDC), told VOI.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, VOI
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