Iraq election law guarantees greater Sunni role
Iraq’s new electoral law, drawn up in a bid to address the concerns of minorities, is almost certain to guarantee more parliamentary seats for Sunni Arabs, who boycotted the previous vote in January.
Tomorrow Iraqis will choose a four-year parliament, with a coalition of Shiite religious parties expected to win the largest share of the 275 seats.
The new parliament, called the Council of Representatives, then will elect a president by a two-thirds majority. The president will ask the leader of the parliament’s largest bloc to form a government that can get a vote of confidence by a simple majority. The prime minister must also win a vote of confidence by the house after delivering a statement outlining his policies.
The interim National Assembly elected in January drafted the constitution that was approved by referendum.
This time each of Iraq’s 18 provinces is a separate voting district, with each allocated seats based on population size – a change that virtually guarantees seats for Arabs in heavily Sunni provinces such as Anbar and Salaheddin and promises to significantly increase their share of parliament from their current 17 seats.
The provinces elect 230 legislators, and 45 seats are allocated according to a party’s share of the national and overseas vote.
Officials believe this will boost the chances of Christians and other religious minorities to win seats.
The new law was approved by the parliament on September 12, after prolonged arguments between the country’s Kurdish and majority Shiite communities.
The Kurds wanted the whole country to be one district, as in January, because they make up the majority in only three northern provinces. Shiites, who make up the majority in nine provinces, wanted separate districts and won the argument.
Baghdad province has 59 seats, the biggest share, followed by the northern province of Nineveh with 19, and the southern province of Basra with 16. The smallest number of seats, five, are allocated to the predominantly Shiite southern province of Muthanna.
