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es nothing to clear up the situation symptomatically the move was coupled with an initiative to introduce revisions to the revised law by comparison these libyan papers offer at least a modicum of clarity as regards the intended division of power between the centre and the provinces the bigger question of course is whether something along the lines of this draft stands any change of popular democratic approval in the current chaotic conditions in libya if the draft converges in the direction of a decentralized system that retains central control of overarching sectors political currents of a far more radical nature including pure separatism are proliferating on the ground especially in the eastern cyrenaica region again compared to iraq cyrenaica arguably has a more dominant role in libya s oil production than kurdistan has in iraq making the question of what will be acceptable in terms of a federal deal potentially an even more contentious issue so far the libyan constitutional committee is offering far less to the provinces than the iraqi committee dominated by the kurds and one of the shiite parties sciri did in 2005 all in all it could offer a more viable formula for a unified state but it could also prompt so strong reactions that the constitutional process itself gets aborted and separatism prevails posted in federalism in the middle east comments off on federalism and decentralization in libya s constitutional proposals groundbreaking iraq supreme court ruling on the law on mp replacement posted by reidar visser on tuesday 16 december 2014 20 55 today the iraqi federal supreme court issued a press release indicating the court has changed its interpretation of the principles relating to vacant seats and replacement issues in the iraqi parliament the ruling itself is not yet available on the supreme court website but there is sufficient detail in the press release to gain an impression of the change that has arisen in essence for the first time the court stipulates that the number of personal votes achieved by candidates in the last general election will decide their eligibility to replace mps that vacate their seats for whatever reason normally getting a ministerial job or due to ill health or death it should be stressed that the correctness of the membership of the iraqi parliament sihhat adwiyat is decided by the iraqi parliament itself as a court of first instance with a two thirds majority only in those cases that are appealed does the court system and the law come into play meaning that there have been a significant number of cases where mps continued to hold their jobs because no one appealed their illegal possession of seats to the supreme court but to the extent that appeal cases have transpired only two legal criteria have hitherto been enforced by the supreme court the replacement must come from the same governorate and same political bloc kutla electoral list does not suffice as the mp that is being replaced these principles have been stressed in rulings where a replacement was attempted from a different governorate or a different kutla but at no time have considerations relating to the number of personal votes been part of the legal reasoning indeed in one of the rulings the court explicitly says replacement is governed solely by the law on deputy replacement that dates back to 2006 before the personal vote system had even been adopted ruling 100 of the iraqi federal supreme court from 2011 stipulating the law on deputy replacement as the legal basis for replacing mps today however personal votes are being used to disqualify a replacement candidate who was approved by parliament but had less votes than someone else from his kutla in the same governorate according to the court this has been done with reference to the revised electoral law being most in conformity with the iraqi constitution this interpretation by the court seems quite radical for a country with a strict civil law tradition since words such as replacement and membership don t even occur in the electoral law and since the replacement law which outlines criteria for governorate and kutla but not personal vote is still in force in this way the ruling seems to be of a rather innovative variety similar perhaps to a previous ruling which decreed that principles of democracy dictated iraq must change from the absolute remainder principle to the sainte lague method as basis for its electoral law given the politicized nature of the iraqi judiciary it makes sense to ask about possible political pressures behind this latest decision what happened was that adnan al zurfi a najaf politician who has been in and out of alliances with former pm maliki over the past years returned to his job as najaf governor after having been elected mp whereupon he promptly awarded his vacant seat to his own brother the iraqi supreme court is now clearly acting against the zurfi family and its powerful najaf governor whereas it is good to see the iraqi supreme court apparently standing up against rampant cronyism in the country s political life the theoretical parameters of this latest ruling are sufficiently detached from actual legal texts that it also raises questions about the court s professionalism and overall orientation a more democratic process would have been achieved if the iraqi parliament itself took the trouble of updating the law on candidate replacement to reflect the personal vote system posted in iraq parliament membership iraqi constitutional issues 1 comment after the rise of isis will iraq s shiites secede posted by reidar visser on friday 31 october 2014 15 11 as iraqi shiites celebrate the holy month of muharram and its key holiday of ashura 4 november it can be argued that radical sectarian mobilization among them has risen to a level unprecedented in modern iraqi history since 1927 when a series of episodes prompted calls among the shiites of iraq to form their own separate state this year too visions focusing on the possible separation of the shiite majority provinces of iraq as a separate political entity are back on the agenda the last time such ideas were being considered in an even remote way was in 2005 when abd al aziz al hakim of sciri launched his scheme for a single shiite federal entity stretching from basra to najaf it was the first time since 1927 that anything in the way of territorial separation of iraqi shiites had received any serious attention whatsoever however back then the project was characterized by only fragmented levels of support with most iraqi shiites still speaking in the name of a unitary state an even more radical movement to separate the south entirely had even less of a support base however following the rise to prominence of the islamic state of iraq and syria isis in 2014 iraqi shiite discourse on the iraqi state appears to have changed quite dramatically in the direction of separatist solutions it is true that some of the talk of a separate shiite entity often referred to as the sumer project in a reference to one of the ancient civilizations of iraq may have gained extra prominence because of the proliferation of social media meaning that a wider array of iraqi shiite voices are accessible to outside analysts than at any point in history however it is noteworthy that also more established political parties among the iraqi shiites appear to be warming up to ideas that were considered a taboo just a few years ago a case in point is the state of law alliance of former pm nuri al maliki and current pm haydar al abadi in a first during ramadan a key website supportive of maliki accorded much prominence to an article that openly hinted at the possible secession of the shiite areas from the rest of iraq also changes in the regional environment contribute to a greater push towards separatist solutions iran in particular has altered its approach to iraq in a dramatic way since the emergence of isis in unprecedented ways it is openly acknowledging and even propagandizing its military support for the iraqi government through the presence of iranian advisors among iraqi military forces deployed on the frontlines against isis the confirmation by the iraq parliament of an interior minister with a background in the iran sponsored badr brigades arguably gives tehran more direct influence in iraq s security forces than they had under maliki the optics of the iraqi battlefield look increasingly sectarian as well in the north west country almost all the territory recaptured by iraqi government forces from isis are areas associated with shiite minorities or kurdish territorial claims also recent iraq government victories in the jurf al sakhar area in babel while covering sunni minority lands essentially fall into a picture of wider shiite consolidation in a core territory from basra to samarra there are however still some important exceptions to the general trend towards sectarian fragmentation in a territorial sense this relates above all to iraqi sunnis that want nothing to do with isis in a macro perspective this can be seen above all in anbar where several key areas including ramadi still remain outside direct isis control those who say the quick fall of mosul is sign that isis enjoys general sunni iraqi legitimacy will have trouble accounting for the continued existence of pockets of resistance to isis among sunnis in anbar if the fall of mosul to isis is proof that shia discrimination of sunnis is the underlying cause of the current troubles then why didn t all of anbar also immediately fall also at the level of individual politicians these tendencies can be seen provincial councils of anbar and nineveh alike continue to operate outside isis controlled territory and repeatedly have condemned isis prominent iraqi sunni politicians like usama al nujayfi have made a point of visiting the shiite clergy in cities like najaf and karbala which of course is anathema to the rabidly anti shiite isis beyond this many of the same historical and practical arguments against separatism that transpired in 2005 remain relevant the iraqi shiites can offer no historical precedent for their separatist scheme and the link to the old pre islamic sumer civilization has of course nothing more to do with shiites than with sunnis saddam hussein was also a huge sumer enthusiast and at the practical level iraq remains a multi religious country whose disintegration would likely lead to huge numbers of displaced people quite possibly creating human tragedies on a scale worse than anything caused by isis thus far with foreign military advisors of all descriptions pouring into iraq and the concomitant internationalization of the whole debate pertaining to the future of the country it becomes doubly important that western pundits exercise caution when they go about attributing cause and effect in the current crisis in particular the notion that isis somehow embodies legitimate sunni demands must be rejected to maintain such a view is not only an affront to the large numbers of iraqi sunnis who bravely resist isis often by putting their lives on the line it also means accelerating a process towards a territorial fragmentation of iraq that lacks historical basis and points towards an uncertain future posted in shiite sectarian federalism 7 comments additional ministers approved for the iraq cabinet posted by reidar visser on saturday 18 october 2014 22 02 after a month of wrangling and indecision that extended into the eid al adha holiday new iraq prime minister haydar al abbadi today succeeded in winning approval for new ministers in his government including most importantly ministers for defence and interior it makes sense to start with the choice of ministers for interior and defence these important posts were a stumbling block for maliki s two cabinets in 2006 they took a month extra to decide whereas in 2010 they weren t decided by parliament at all as maliki continued to control them himself or through acting protegées this time the candidate for minister of interior in particular had caused controversy for a long time the frontrunner was hadi al ameri a militia figure from the badr organization with particularly close ties to the iranians whose candidacy caused uproar among many sunni mps who remain critical of his conduct during the previous sectarian crisis period of 2005 2007 today ameri gave way to muhammad salim al ghabban who shares his badr background but possibly is seen as less toxic to non shiite mps simply because he is younger and has less baggage than ameri for his part khaled al obeidi who is the new defence minister had been a candidate back in 2010 as well when he was nominated by iraqiyya but quickly was criticized for having moved too close to maliki maybe that sort of person a sunni and former iraq army officers with ties in both sectarian camps is the best iraq could hope for in a time when urgent work needs to be done to reorganize the iraqi army and make it more resilient against the islamic state terror organization both ministers achieved more than acceptable levels of backing by mps with yes votes from the 261 mps present reported at 173 obeidi and 197 ghabban which is considerably more than what many other ministers got back in september as for the kurdish ministers it was probably wise of abbadi to have them approved before parliament in the same batch as the others the vote on those ministers include some new portfolios that were not voted on back in september altogether five migration tourism culture women and a minister for state as well as reshuffling two key portfolios whose allocation to individual kurdish ministers by abbadi was not to the liking of the kurdish political parties themselves rosch shaways thereby continues to serve as deputy prime minister and foreign minister hosyar zebari becomes minister of finance the vote in the iraqi parliament today makes the abbadi cabinet more complete it maintains differences from the cabinet of his predecessor maliki in at least two important structural aspects it has got security ministries approved by the iraqi parliament with solid backing and it remains significantly slimmer with less than 30 ministers out of the 9 ministers approved today 2 referred to the reshuffling of ministries already allocated moreover there are few empty ministries of state with no other purpose than placating particular party interests kurds have improved their representation in the cabinet significantly and the alignment of personnel to ministries is also more in harmony with the wishes of the kurdish parties it can be said that through these additions the iraqi parliament has realistically done what it can in the short term to help the iraqi cabinet achieve a more solid platform for its battle against isis major legislative acts such as de baathification reform a senate law and an oil and gas law will continue to remain on the agenda for a long time probably with no realistic prospec...
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