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Text of the page (random words):
2013 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 2013 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 2013 preparing for the 2014 elections iraqi parliament to resume debate on changes to the electoral law posted by reidar visser on saturday 19 october 2013 9 52 it s almost four years since iraq s general elections of 2010 and new elections are scheduled for early 2014 iraq wouldn t be iraq if there wasn t some kind of problem on the political horizon and this time it consists of changes to the electoral law that need to be done in time in order that the electoral commission ihec can starts its technical preparations for the ballot the iraqi parliament has given itself until 30 october to adopt the changes and the debate is scheduled to start this coming week of 21 october the immediate reason there has to be changes to the election law is simple a federal supreme court ruling from june 2010 decided that the current system of seat distribution using the largest remainder principle in a proportional system of 18 multi member constituencies was unconstitutional and that a more proportional system would need to be adopted in line with this the iraqi parliament made changes to the local elections law before the provincial elections earlier this year by introducing the sainte lague method for distributing seats the reason the current law was deemed unconstitutional was that its use of the largest remainder principle was found by the supreme court to be in conflict with one of the basic axioms of the iraqi constitution which says that no law that contradicts the principles of democracy can be adopted this conclusion by the court is both esoteric and astonishing in what amounted to a mutual ball gag between the shiite islamists and kurds that crafted the new iraqi constitution in 2005 principles of democracy as well as the basic tenets of islam were given status as the unalienable main points of reference for all iraqi legislation this arrangement was useful there and then since the political process got moving and quite a few american academics waxed lyrical about it however it was probably never intended to be taken very literally given the abstract nature of the concepts referred to and it seems truly wild for the supreme court to extrapolate from the very general principles of democracy whatever those may be to a level of detail where it is suggested that the sainte lague method for distributing seats is somehow democratic whereas the largest remainder method isn t one can only wonder what the iraqi supreme court members think of such abhorrent practices as those found in countries with a westminster inspired model of politics where winners typically take all in single seat constituencies and where the gap between the popular vote and the levels of party representation in national assemblies can be quite enormous as a consequence so far it is mainly the state of law coalition of prime minister nuri al maliki that has voiced a bit of scepticism to the proposed change it lost a considerable number of seats in the last provincial elections and at least some of them can be attributed to the new distribution mechanism most other iraqi politicians seem to be happy with the change from largest remainder to sainte lague as such and could in theory adopt that change without needing maliki s votes unsurprisingly however once the election law can had been opened earlier this year other worms came out as well with interested parties soon showing enthusiasm for more wide ranging changes that have complicated the discussion of the election law changes in parliament in particular this relates to the kurdish desire to go back to a single nationwide electoral constituency as was practised in the elections to the constituent assembly in january 2005 whereas that kind of move could perhaps be seen as a logical continuation of the supreme court s insistence on hyper proportionality it is also the case that this kind of electoral system was widely discredited as one of the main factors behind the ethno sectarian voting patterns seen in the first iraqi elections besides if carried out with reference to the principles of democracy it would also imply that israel the netherlands and slovakia are among the the only incarnations of true democracy with their past and present examples of nationwide constituencies the kurdish goal is obviously to pick up minority kurdish votes in places where they are unlikely to win seats in other ways especially in baghdad the small iraqi communist party which has limited numbers of enthusiastic adherents spread across the country is also in favour of this kind of arrangement it was them who brought the initial challenge to the current system before the supreme court in 2010 in an interesting reflection of the unpopularity of the single constituency outside the kurdish camp the secular but increasingly sunni dominated iraqiyya has voiced opposition to the kurdish proposal that is noteworthy since iraqiyya might well have gained something from a more proportional system in which they could pick up a little bit more points from scattered sunni and secular minorities south of baghdad if that wasn t enough though other problems are lurking too back in 2009 there was a huge debate about special arrangements for the disputed city of kirkuk eventually a highly theoretical method for scrutinizing the result was adopted but it was never put into practice because the contesting parties kurds and iraqiyya seemed happy with the outcome it was the iraqiyya camp that had introduced the idea of a special status for kirkuk as it was assumed the kurds would dominate the process there however the issue could easily come up again possibly in combination with the other contentious issue of minority seats if the conflict over other parts of the election law persists iraqiyya and the shiite islamists have enough votes to trump the kurds on constituency size unless they start quarreling internally over sainte lague versus the largest remainder distribution mechanism another question is to what extent the regional sectarian climate will influence the iraqi decision on these matters lately events in syria have brought iraq s shiite islamists and kurds closer together again presenting them with a considerable dilemma and the prospect of regional side effects from any major quarrel in the iraqi parliament the president of the kurdish federal region masud barzani has already threatened to boycott the next parliamentary elections if kurdish interests aren t safeguarded in the electoral arrangements barzani is himself under pressure because of his loyalties to turkey which supports the syrian opposition and his relations to other iraqi kurds some of whom are more favourably inclined towards the assad regime hopefully though iraqis will use the election law debate as a means to build political bridges domestically instead of importing ever more problems from abroad posted in iraq parliamentary elections 2014 iraqi constitutional issues 2 comments create a free website or 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