Iraq's
National Assembly voted yesterday to reverse last-minute
changes it had made to rules for next week's referendum
on a new constitution. The UN had criticized the changes
as unfair to Iraq's Sunni Arab minority, which had threatened
to boycott the vote.
After
a brief debate, the Assembly voted 119 to 28 to restore
the original voting rules for the referendum, which will
take place on October 15. Only about half of the 275-member
legislative body turned up for the vote.
"The
government is completely keen to make the constitutional
process legitimate and of high credibility and we are
concerned about the success of this process rather than
the results of the referendum," government spokesman
Laith Kubba said after the vote.
A
UN official confirmed the vote and praised parliament
for reversing the decision, saying that he believed Sunni
Arabs will now take part in the referendum. "Even
if they (the Sunnis) vote no, what the Assembly did today
is more democratic than what it did several days ago,"
the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity
because official comment should come from UN headquarters
in New York.
Washington
hopes a majority "yes" vote in the referendum
will unite Iraq's disparate factions and erode support
for the country's bloody insurgency, paving the way to
eventually begin withdrawing foreign troops.
But
it wants Sunni Arabs to participate even though they are
campaigning to defeat the charter. A Sunni boycott would
have deeply undermined the vote and wreck efforts to bring
Sunnis into the political process.
Many
Sunnis oppose the charter and want it rewritten, believing
it would divide Iraq and leave Shi'ites in the south and
Kurds in the north with virtual autonomy and control over
Iraq's oil wealth, while isolating Sunnis with little
power or revenue in central and western areas.
The
original rules, now restored, mean that Sunnis can veto
the constitution by getting a two-thirds "no"
vote in three provinces, even if the charter wins majority
approval nationwide. Sunnis have a sufficient majority
in four of Iraq's 18 provinces.
The
text approved by parliament yesterday confirmed that the
word "voters" throughout the election rules
in the interim constitution has a single meaning: those
who cast votes.
"The
word 'voters' in paragraph (c), article 61 of the Transitional
Administrative law, means registered voters who actually
cast their votes in the referendum," reads the text,
according to deputy speaker Hussain al-Shahraistani.
On
Sunday, Iraq's Shi'ite-and Kurdish-controlled parliament
had sought to close the loophole enabling Sunnis to reject
the constitution by interpreting the word "voters"
two different ways in that article. It decided that a
simple majority of those who cast votes means the constitution's
victory but that two-thirds of registered voters must
cast "no" ballots in three provinces to defeat
it.
That
interpretation had raised the bar to a level almost impossible
to meet. In a province of 1 million registered voters,
for example, 660,000 would have to vote "no,"
even if that many didn't even come to the polls.
Sunnis
were infuriated, accusing the Shi'ite-led government of
fixing the rules to guarantee a victory. The UN said the
change was a violation of international standards.
In
behind-the-scenes negotiations on Tuesday, UN and US officials
pressed Iraqi legislators and government officials to
reverse that change.
Now
officials were racing to prepare for the crucial vote
only 10 days away.
(China Daily October 6, 2005)
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