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2006 october iraq and gulf analysis iraq and gulf analysis home about archives august 2015 january 2015 december 2014 october 2014 september 2014 august 2014 july 2014 june 2014 may 2014 april 2014 march 2014 february 2014 january 2014 december 2013 november 2013 october 2013 september 2013 august 2013 july 2013 june 2013 may 2013 april 2013 march 2013 february 2013 january 2013 december 2012 november 2012 october 2012 september 2012 august 2012 july 2012 june 2012 may 2012 april 2012 march 2012 february 2012 january 2012 december 2011 november 2011 october 2011 september 2011 august 2011 july 2011 june 2011 may 2011 april 2011 march 2011 february 2011 january 2011 december 2010 november 2010 october 2010 september 2010 august 2010 july 2010 june 2010 may 2010 april 2010 march 2010 february 2010 january 2010 december 2009 november 2009 october 2009 september 2009 august 2009 july 2009 june 2009 may 2009 april 2009 march 2009 february 2009 january 2009 december 2008 november 2008 october 2008 september 2008 august 2008 july 2008 june 2008 may 2008 april 2008 march 2008 february 2008 january 2008 december 2007 november 2007 october 2007 september 2007 august 2007 july 2007 june 2007 may 2007 april 2007 march 2007 february 2007 january 2007 december 2006 november 2006 october 2006 september 2006 august 2006 july 2006 june 2006 may 2006 april 2006 march 2006 february 2006 january 2006 december 2005 november 2005 october 2005 august 2005 categories basra and southern regionalism 34 de baathification 11 federalism in sunni majority areas of iraq 14 federalism in the middle east 6 iranian influence in iraq 55 iraq regionalism general 27 iraq and soft partition 39 iraq international relations 5 iraq local elections 2013 21 iraq parliament membership 13 iraq parliamentary elections 2014 26 iraq s 2010 parliamentary election 175 iraqi constitutional issues 280 iraqi nationalism 95 kirkuk and disputed territories 47 oil in iraq 46 rule of law 2 sectarian master narrative 55 shiite sectarian federalism 16 uia dynamics 133 uncategorized 59 us policy in iraq leverage issues 67 meta create account log in entries feed comments feed wordpress com my latest book on amazon com from just world books available on amazon com twitter updates tweets by reidarvisser october 2006 m t w t f s s 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 sep nov subscribe entries rss comments rss recent posts legality and constitutionality questions in iraq s reform push the federalism dimension in yemen s draft constitution federalism and decentralization in libya s constitutional proposals groundbreaking iraq supreme court ruling on the law on mp replacement after the rise of isis will iraq s shiites secede additional ministers approved for the iraq cabinet the controversial kurdish ministers in the new iraqi cabinet the iraqi parliament fails to approve new security ministers the iraqi parliament approves the abbadi cabinet haydar al abbadi is the new iraq pm candidate maliki the presidency and parliament in the iraq pm nomination battle pm nomination trouble in iraq iraq elects fuad masum as new president for the first time in iraq a large field of presidential candidates the iraqi parliament elects its new speakership archive for october 2006 iraq federalism bill adopted amid protests and joint shiite sunni boycott posted by reidar visser on thursday 12 october 2006 16 32 early reports about the adoption on 11 october 2006 of a new iraqi law for the formation of regions suggest that it was passed under rather chaotic circumstances no more than some 140 parliamentarians accounts vary from 138 to 141 or around half of the 275 members of the assembly turned up for the vote all voted in favour of the bill whereas most of the remaining deputies staged an organised boycott at one point the session was reportedly closed to observers and journalists were not given access to the proceedings the boycott was largely inter sectarian and iraqi nationalist it united all the sunni parties of both secularist and islamist colours and shiite nationalist islamists primarily supporters of muqtada al sadr as well as the fadila at least one turkmen representative also joined the main group of active boycotters whose combined parliamentary strength is around 105 seats their objections range from virulent opposition to the principle of federalism as seen among the sunni groups via preference for a system that would avoid sectarian federalism fadila they also considered the adoption of the law at this time unhelpful to the process of national reconciliation to rejection of federalism in a context of occupation supporters of muqtada sadr a conspicuous common denominator for many of these factions is their background as the domestic resistance to the former regime as opposed to those deputies who are returnees from exile the principal backers of the bill were the kurdish parties and the supreme council for the islamic revolution in iraq sciri who together account for 88 seats the balance of some 50 seats is believed to have come at least partly from iyad allawi s secularist alliance of 25 representatives whose principal figures reportedly took part in the vote hamid musa mahdi al hafiz wail abd al latif safiyya al suhayl and mufid al jazairi have all been specifically mentioned the remaining votes that were required perhaps between 30 and 40 an unspecified number of allawi supporters protested against their leaders and stayed away from the vote must have come primarily from the grey middle segment of the shiite united iraqi alliance uia the 54 or so deputies who are neither sciri nor sadrist and label themselves independents or come from one of the two main daawa factions lately the daawa faction called tanzim al iraq has changed its traditionally anti federal rhetoric and with its party mouthpiece now attacking those who reject federalism on the pretext of national unity it is very likely that they are drifting towards a pro sciri position on this particular vote they may have been joined by some members of the main daawa branch as well as by independents but the numbers make it clear that there must have been additional shiite resistance to the bill on top of the protests by fadila and the main sadrist faction despite the fact that there was reportedly enormous pressure on deputies to turn up for the vote reports on the parliamentary process that led to the adoption of the bill are still incredibly sketchy over the past week the work of the iraqi parliament has repeatedly been interrupted by security scares and on some days sessions were delayed many hours due to the high number of absent deputies but if newspaper quotes from the final text of the law can be taken at face value there are at least some changes from the draft that was made public after the first reading of the bill first and foremost it has been reported that article 6 now reads the referendum on the formation of federal regions is successful if passed by a simple majority in each of the governorates that wish to federate as a region provided that participation is not lower than 50 of registered voters italics added this would be a significant change from the original text in that it offers somewhat improved protection of regional interests against annexation by larger neighbouring provinces or regions and it would better conform to the idea of bottom up federalisation as outlined in the iraqi constitution it may have mollified shiite deputies from the far south who are interested in having a region of their own and who may have feared absorption into a greater shiite federal entity and it may have gone some way to alleviate the concerns of those who worried that the law would almost automatically generate a particular i e sectarian form of federalism also it is reported that the agreed 18 month moratorium on implementation of federalism has now been inserted into the law itself however at least two other potentially destabilising elements of the original text remain the incredibly low threshold for calling a referendum a third of provincial council members a highly manipulatable segment is still in place and apparently no safeguards against a perpetual cycle of referendums have been added new plebiscites can be called once every year if a unification attempt should fail additionally the manner in which the law was adopted may in itself create controversy the quorum threshold 138 was almost missed and there were loud protests about hesitant deputies being dragged into the assembly to fill the required number of seats it could be disturbing news for iraq s democracy that almost half of the deputies chose to boycott the proceedings instead of taking part in or getting invited to a process that could perhaps have yielded a compromise solution as such the passage of the law is very reminiscent of the final stages of the constitutional negotiations in 2005 and strongly suggests the need for improved dialogue inside the iraqi national assembly posted in iraqi constitutional issues comments off on iraq federalism bill adopted amid protests and joint shiite sunni boycott blog at wordpress com subscribe subscribed iraq and gulf analysis join 203 other subscribers sign me up already have a wordpress com account log in now privacy iraq and gulf analysis subscribe subscribed sign up log in report this content view site in reader manage subscriptions collapse this bar design a site like this with wordpress com get started