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Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani in a press conference. File Photot

"If the mistakes are left unrepaired, it won't cause damages to the Kurds alone, but to the democratic process in Iraq as well," Kurdistan Parliament Speaker.

Leaders of the Kurdistan Region are hinting at the possibility of boycotting Iraq's upcoming legislative elections. This comes as they think the "illogical" increase in the population in the central and southern provinces has been recorded, and therefore it might reduce the northern Kurdish provinces' influence in the next Parliament.

"The people of Kurdistan would have no choice but to boycott the coming elections," Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani said through a statement published by his Chief of Office, Fuad Hussein. Barzani warned that "the issue of allocating and distributing seats on the [Iraqi] provinces is not reviewed."

Iraqi Parliament seats have to increase from the current 275 to 323 seats so as to come parallel with the increase of the Iraqi population. The increase of seats commits to a constitutional rule of one seat per 100,000 people, as addressed in the controversial electoral law that was passed by Iraqi Parliament on November 8 after long weeks of harsh debate among political powers.

Among the extra 48 seats to be added to Iraqi Parliament, only three of them are allocated to the Kurdistan Region provinces. It adds one seat to Erbil's 13, two seats for Duhok's seven, and Suleimaniyah with no increase, remaining the same with the 15 seats it had in the 2005 elections.

With an extra 12 seat to its original 19 seats, Ninewa province takes the lion's share. Baghdad now takes 69 after receiving 10 of the additional seats. Eight seats are added to Basra province, making it 24 seats in Parliament; Thi-Qar becomes 18, while it had only 12 in 2005, and Anbar become 14 after receiving an extra five.
The Iraqi Ministry of Trade's ration coupons provided monthly for people was the basis for counting the Iraqi population in the absence of a national census for decades.

In the presidency statement, published on Tuesday, Hussein added that the Kurdistan Region President "emphasizes that it is unworkable to accept a mechanism for distributing the seats depending on ration coupons of the Iraqi Ministry of Trade; this mechanism contradicts with logic and reality. Adapting such a mechanism not only destroys the facts, but also brings oppression and injustice against the rights of Kurdistan people."

Barzani's statement immediately was supported by the Kurdistan Region Parliament when its speaker, Kamal Kirkuki, in a news conference Tuesday said, "Kurdistan won't take part in the coming election unless the issue of distributing the seats on provinces in settled."

"All can know about this big difference in the distribution on the provinces. Three seats have been added to all the Kurdistan [Region] provinces while 12 seats are added to the Ninewa province alone," explained Kirkuki. "If the mistakes left unrepaired, it won't cause damages to the Kurds alone, but to the democratic process in Iraq as well," he noted.

The Kurdish boycotting warning instantly was eased by Kirkuki's media advisor, Tariq Jawhar, who said, "The attitude announced by the Speaker of the Kurdistan Parliament aims for repairing the mistakes [of distribution of seats] and is not an attempt to hinder the coming elections."

As an alternative, the Kurds in Baghdad have demanded for reviewing the distribution mechanism in a way every province receives an equal share of extra seats, said Mohsen Sadun, Iraqi Parliament member from the Kurdistan Alliance list. He explained that if his list's demand was not met, they "will offer the demand to the Federal Court."

Meanwhile, the Kurdish demand sounds weak for Salim al-Juburi, a member from the Sunni Accord Front list, who said that it is "impossible" to review the mechanism of distributing the seats.
Al-Juburi, who is also a member in the Parliamentary Legal Committee, noted that the Kurdistan Alliance "had contributed in issuing the [election] law and they didn't show objection on its article while in the discussions."

However, the Kurds are hopeful about their demand to review the seat distribution, as the law is supposed to be discussed again by Parliament to meet amendments offered by the Iraqi presidency.

Election law vetoed

Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi announced Wednesday his vetoing of the first article of the recently passed election law, which contains measures about the rate of compensatory seats and sets aside 5 percent of total seats for Iraqi voters abroad.
Al-Hashimi assured during a press conference at his office in Baghdad that he will not ratify the law unless it is amended by Parliament once again.

Constitutionally, for a law to be executed it requires ratification of every member of the Iraqi Republic Presidency Board consisting of the Republic President, Jalal Talabani, and his vice presidents, al-Hashimi and Adil Abdul-Mahdi.

Talabani, a Kurd, and Abudul-Mahdi, a Shiite, have already approved the law. Even though the Kurdistan Region Parliament during a special session on Sunday called upon the presidency to veto the law because of notes they had on the distribution of seats on provinces and on the rate of national compensatory seats.

There are several "gaps" in the election law, said al-Hashimi, but he noted that for avoiding opening discussions about every problem in the law, he focused only "on the essential issue that has occupied the mind of the public discourse inside and outside [the country], and the issue is the first article of the law that is relative to Iraqi immigrants abroad."

The Vice President suggested two possibilities for reviewing this issue: either Parliament reviews the article, or the Iraqi Independent High Commission (IHEC) allocates a better share for Iraqis abroad.

The first article of the law leaves 5 percent of Parliament seats-totaling nearly 16 seats-not distributed to the provinces directly but to be left for minorities' quotas and the Iraqi voters abroad. Al-Hashimi's note on the article concentrates on raising the percentage to 15 percent.

The Vice President believes that this percentage in the article contradicts the Constitution. "The Constitution is quite clear?every 100,000 people should have a representative in Parliament and this has not been provided for the immigrants outside who now are estimated to be 3, 4 or 5 million people," explained al-Hashimi.