BAGHDAD (AFP)
Iraq on Thursday postponed provincial elections due in October after MPs failed to agree the necessary legislation in time, in a blow to U.S.-backed efforts to consolidate national reconciliation.
"I can confirm to you that we have lost the chance to hold the elections in October," Qassem al-Aboudi, administrative director of Iraq's electoral commission, told AFP after a meeting with the United Nations.
The country had been due to go to the polls on October 1, but the long-awaited legislation to govern the ballot has faced repeated delays over the political treatment of the disputed northern oil province of Kirkuk.
The complex issues over who will control the energy-rich province, claimed by both Arabs and Kurds, has dogged passage of the provincial elections bill since it was ratified by the cabinet in April, despite U.S. efforts to pressure Baghdad.
Thursday's decision was a major setback for both Washington and the United Nations which viewed the ballot as critical to consolidating Iraq's fledgling political process and reconciling its deeply divided ethnic groups.
Parliament broke for summer recess on Wednesday without passing the contentious bill despite a new U.N. proposal which called for a year-long freeze on issues related to Kirkuk.
The proposal, which called for the polls to be postponed in Kirkuk but go ahead as scheduled in Iraq's 17 other provinces, failed to win approval from various Arab and Turkmen factions.
The United Nations suggested the elections in Kirkuk be delayed until December 2009, thus giving Iraq's various political factions time to hammer out new terms to a power-sharing arrangement for the region.
Parliament speaker Mahmud al-Mashhadani ordered MPs to continue working on the draft until the body reconvenes on September 9, but factional infighting had long cast doubt on the passage of the law. |
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Power division The disagreement centers on an article of original draft legislation that would have divided power amongst the province's Arab, Kurds and Turkmen communities, but is opposed by the Kurds on the basis of their superior numbers and historical claims to the city.
Ethnic tension has dogged Kirkuk since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 that ousted now executed dictator Saddam Hussein.
The province has come under the spotlight with the introduction of the bill governing provincial elections.
At least 22 people were killed more than a week ago in a suicide bombing during a protest rally held by Kurds in Kirkuk and in gunfire in the panic that followed.
Under Saddam's regime, Kirkuk was the scene of a massive population upheaval, with tens of thousands of Kurdish residents expelled to make way for Arab settlers.
Since 2003, Kurdish politicians have stoked tensions by encouraging Kurds to return. |
