Home | World and National News
Home
| World and National News
Iraq president's veto would delay elections
By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post
Jul 24, 2008
BAGHDAD - President Jalal Talabani said yesterday that he would veto a law governing provincial elections scheduled for this year, making it all but certain that the balloting will be delayed until 2009. The announcement was a setback for the Bush administration and the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which hailed a preliminary election law passed earlier this year as evidence of political progress.
The elections are expected to redistribute power in Iraq's 18 provinces in what is considered a necessary step toward reconciliation. Many Sunni Arabs boycotted provincial balloting in January 2005, enabling Shiite Muslims and Kurds to win a disproportionate share of power.
A preliminary election law setting the October deadline for the vote had been touted as a sign that Maliki's government was making political progress, in addition to security gains.
Talabani, a Kurd, said the law passed by parliament Tuesday was unconstitutional and had been approved by only 127 lawmakers from the 275-member parliament, after the Kurdish delegation walked out. For a bill to become law, it must be approved by the three-member presidency council, which Talabani heads.
Iraqi laws must be ratified by the presidential council, but in a statement Talabani said the body "will never pass this law," adding that recent actions surrounding the legislation have "made enormous damage to the national unity."
The dispute over the law centered on the status of Kirkuk, an oil-rich city in northern Iraq that Kurdish leaders believe should come under the authority of their semiautonomous regional government. Most of the Iraqi political parties had already agreed that elections to govern the status of Kirkuk would be delayed indefinitely - the clash was over how the city should be governed in the interim.
The legislation approved by parliament would divide control of the provincial council among Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens; currently the Kurds control the balance of power on the council as well as the governorship. The law also called for the city to be controlled by troops from central and southern Iraq, instead of the Kurdish pesh merga forces that now patrol Kirkuk. When the speaker of parliament called for a secret ballot to vote on those parts of the legislation, the Kurds walked out of the session.
"It was a big surprise," said Sami al-Askary, a Shiite lawmaker close to Maliki who was traveling with the prime minister in Germany yesterday. "The defeat was due to mismanagement by the speaker and his deputies and then the sudden sharp rejection by the Kurds."
Faraj al-Haidari, the chairman of Iraq's independent election commission, said that if a law were passed by July 31, around when parliament is expected to adjourn until September for its summer recess, then balloting could take place by late December. If not, elections would be postponed until next year, so that the commission could train 200,000 election monitors to work in 7,200 polling stations nationwide.
Pacts Questioned
Sen. Robert Byrd (D., W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said yesterday that the Bush administration and Pentagon leaders failed to properly plan for troop support in Iraq, leading to billions of lost taxpayer dollars, theft and fraud.
Among the Pentagon's contracts with U.S. companies to provide services for soldiers in Iraq is a multibillion-
dollar, 10-year deal with Kellogg, Brown & Root awarded in December 2001. Lawmakers have cited several examples of contract abuse by
the Houston-based company, now known as KBR Inc., including billing the government for millions of meals never delivered, overstating labor costs and wasting millions of dollars to purchase unnecessary vehicles.
Jeffrey Parsons, executive director of Army Contracting Command, told the committee the Pentagon is realigning that contract to improve accountability. - Associated Press
This article contains information from the Associated Press.
Copyright 2008
Powered By Zebra Mobile