A path opens to elections in Iraq | csmonitor.com: "The Governing Council is set to approve a 'fundamental law,' essentially an interim constitution, by Feb. 28, and Kurdish political parties are pushing for special rights, including a veto over the presence of federal troops in their area. The transitional constitution will set the ground rules for the government that the US hopes to hand sovereignty to on July 1.
Wednesday in Kirkuk - an oil-rich town that is home to a large number of Kurds but is not currently part of the autonomous zone - a Sunni Arab-led protest against Kurdish political domination of the city deteriorated into a gun battle. Protesters and gunmen fought at the offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan; at least two people were killed.
'We're all in agreement that the new Iraq should be a federation, but the difficult question is what kind of federation we will adopt,'' says Ahmed Shia'a al-Barrak, a human rights lawyer and council member. 'There are still a lot of opinions about how to proceed.'
>>>"'Sistani is asking for a general election as his first choice, because it is the most direct way of expressing people's opinions,' says Rubaie, who along with council member Ahmed Chalabi has been meeting regularly with Sistani and other clerics on the issue. 'But he's agreed that if the UN says that for technical reasons a fair election can't be held now, that he will accept what we're proposing.'
A transitional assembly the Governing Council and proconsul Paul Bremer agreed to create by June is intended to be a 'big tent,' including as broad a swathe of Iraq's political and sectarian divisions as possible. That would include some of the religious radicals who have been the biggest critics of the occupation. 'It's better to have people inside the tent spitting out, rather than outside the tent spitting in,'' says Rubaie.
A committee set up by the Governing Council and existing provincial assemblies would select a slate of notables representative of each of Iraq's 18 governates, and then submit that slate to the people for either ratification or rejection. If rejected, the slates would be changed to take into account the public's concerns, and then resubmitted.
So far, though, Bremer has been reluctant to give full control over the selection process to Iraqis, worried that it could leave too many extremists in the interim government, says one council official.
'He wants a managed election, but the Iraqi people will see right through that,'' says the councilor, who asked not to be named. 'For this process to be worth our time, it has to be put strictly into our hands.'""
Wednesday in Kirkuk - an oil-rich town that is home to a large number of Kurds but is not currently part of the autonomous zone - a Sunni Arab-led protest against Kurdish political domination of the city deteriorated into a gun battle. Protesters and gunmen fought at the offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan; at least two people were killed.
'We're all in agreement that the new Iraq should be a federation, but the difficult question is what kind of federation we will adopt,'' says Ahmed Shia'a al-Barrak, a human rights lawyer and council member. 'There are still a lot of opinions about how to proceed.'
>>>"'Sistani is asking for a general election as his first choice, because it is the most direct way of expressing people's opinions,' says Rubaie, who along with council member Ahmed Chalabi has been meeting regularly with Sistani and other clerics on the issue. 'But he's agreed that if the UN says that for technical reasons a fair election can't be held now, that he will accept what we're proposing.'
A transitional assembly the Governing Council and proconsul Paul Bremer agreed to create by June is intended to be a 'big tent,' including as broad a swathe of Iraq's political and sectarian divisions as possible. That would include some of the religious radicals who have been the biggest critics of the occupation. 'It's better to have people inside the tent spitting out, rather than outside the tent spitting in,'' says Rubaie.
A committee set up by the Governing Council and existing provincial assemblies would select a slate of notables representative of each of Iraq's 18 governates, and then submit that slate to the people for either ratification or rejection. If rejected, the slates would be changed to take into account the public's concerns, and then resubmitted.
So far, though, Bremer has been reluctant to give full control over the selection process to Iraqis, worried that it could leave too many extremists in the interim government, says one council official.
'He wants a managed election, but the Iraqi people will see right through that,'' says the councilor, who asked not to be named. 'For this process to be worth our time, it has to be put strictly into our hands.'""
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