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Iraq passes poll law, vote urged before Jan 31

(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-25 10:02

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's parliament unanimously approved a provincial elections law on Wednesday after months of bickering between Arabs and Kurds and called for the vote to be held before January 31 of next year, legislators said. 

American soldiers talk to a woman during a search for wanted terror suspects in Baghdad, Iraq, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008. [Agencies]

The polls had been scheduled for October 1, but the law governing how the vote should be conducted stalled in parliament over how to treat the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, where control is disputed by Kurds, Arabs and ethnic Turkmen.

Parliamentarians said elections in Kirkuk would be delayed until a formula satisfactory to all sides was worked out.

The elections, which will select provincial councils across Iraq, will provide clues on how Shi'ite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish factions will fare in national polls scheduled for late 2009.

Both the United Nations and the United States had been urging Iraqi leaders to pass the law, saying the elections would be a vital step, building on recent decline in violence and boosting national reconciliation efforts.

Overall violence has fallen to four-year lows in Iraq, but militants continue to carry out sporadic large-scale attacks.

Faraj al-Haidari, head of the Electoral Commission, said while much of the organizing work for the local polls had been finished, but it might be four to five months before the vote could go ahead.

"If the presidency (council) approves the law, we need 140 to 150 days to complete all the preparations to hold the elections," Haidari told Reuters.

Parliament will now submit the law to Iraq's three-member presidency council, headed by President Jalal Talabani, for approval. Talabani rejected an earlier version approved by MPs in July and sent it back to parliament, but given the law Wednesday was approved unanimously it should be a formality.

Salim al-Jubouri, from the Sunni Arab Accordance Front, said both Arabs and Kurds had made concessions on Kirkuk.

A separate law for elections in Kirkuk as well as a power-sharing formula for the city's administration would be drawn up, Jubouri said.

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