Iraq: Election Plans Suspended

Voice of America reported November 18 that planning for parliamentary elections in Iraq in January 2010 has been suspended because Tariq al-Hashemi, the Sunni Arab Vice President, said he would veto part of the election law passed in early November.

VOA says, "Word that the Iraqi vice president was vetoing the much debated and only recently passed electoral law casts the specter of raucous new debate and possibly a political vacuum if parliamentary elections are postponed. Sunni Arab Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, whose community has complained repeatedly about being marginalized in the post-Saddam Hussein political arena, insists Iraqis living abroad should have greater representation in Iraq's new parliament."

This all boils down to a power struggle in the face of a U.S. withdrawal. The United States has signed a status of forces agreement that has all U.S. military forces out of Iraq by the end of 2011. The absence of U.S. forces is going to create a power vacuum, and the various Iraqi factions are now positioning themselves to have as much power as they can get before the United States is gone.

VOA continues, "He says that he has told the speaker of parliament that he is vetoing the (recently passed) electoral law, and sending it back to legislators to be amended. He insists that Iraqis living abroad were under-represented in parliament and their number of seats should be increased. He stressed, however, that he was only vetoing one clause of the electoral law and that he does not believe the veto will force a delay in elections (scheduled for January). Al-Hashemi argues Iraqis living abroad, many of whom belong to his Sunni Arab community, should have 15 percent of the seats in Iraq's new parliament and not just the five percent originally allotted to them."

I doubt there's going to be much love for the Iraqis living abroad. A sort of class conflict evolved between Shiites who had fled Iraq during the reign of Saddam Hussein and those who stayed and endured the dictator's brutality. The same may be true for Sunnis who have fled abroad and might now be resented by those who have stayed through the worst of the insurgency.

VOA says, "Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who belongs to the rival Shi'ite Arab community, criticized the move, immediately, saying that he was 'shocked by the veto,' calling it a 'threat to the political process ... and a flouting of Iraq's national interests.'"

And this: "Iraq electoral commission member Qassem al-Aboudi says the veto by Mr. Hashemi has forced the body to freeze its work. He says the veto of the electoral law and a potential change in the allotment of seats calls into question ballots that are being drawn up and therefore the electoral commission must freeze all its operations until a new electoral law is approved. Selim al-Jabbouri of the Iraqi Islamic Party stated the veto of Iraq's electoral law 'puts the entire process back to square one.'"

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/a-13-2009-11-18-voa5-70423777.html