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Iraq-Jordan
Iraq’s parliament to vote on charter despite Sunnis demands
2005-08-28
BAGHDAD - Iraq’s parliament will vote on a constitution on Sunday regardless of the minority Sunni position on the draft, parliament speaker Hajim Al Hasani said.

Iraqi’s Sunni Arab former elite presented fresh demands on the wording of the constitution Saturday amid warnings from Shiite and Kurdish negotiators that they would make no further concessions. The text presented by the Kurds and Shiites Friday, after weeks of tortuous negotiation, was “final and parliament will vote on it tomorrow (Sunday)... even if the Sunnis do not accept it,” Hasani told AFP.
Part of majority rule is that the majority gets to rule, and the minority gets to accept that.
Iraq’s interim leaders are struggling to stick to a political timetable that would culminate in election of a new government in December—and pave the way for withdrawal of US forces from Iraq. But parliamentary approval of a constitution not supported by Sunni negotiators could set the stage for its rejection in a national referendum in October.
Then it would be back to the old drawing board. The Shi'a would be pissed, the Kurds would be pissed and worried, and the Sunnis would suddenly find themselves without any leverage at all. Rejecting the constitution puts federalism, with or without the attending civil war, on the 'most likely to succeed' list.
A written proposal from the Sunnis Saturday demanded that all reference to autonomous regions other than the Kurdish north be deleted from the text and that a bigger role for Islam be enshrined in the charter. “We want a capital (Baghdad) and one autonomous region only, in addition to provinces enjoying delegated powers,” the proposal said, rejecting calls from many Shiites for their own autonomous region in Shiite-majority areas of the south and centre.

The Sunnis also demanded that the Kurdish language be given official status in the Kurdish region only and that the whole of Iraq be referred to as part of the Arab world. In deference to Kurdish sensitivities, the current text says that Iraq is part of the Islamic world but that only its Arab people are part of the Arab nation.
The Sunni leaders have to know that the Kurds won't accept this, and I suspect that's precisely the point. If I were a betting man I'd bet that the Sunnis want the whole enterprise to fail. That means they think they can make a stand against the Shi'a and the Kurds, and that the Americans will hold the Shi'a back.
The five Sunni ministers in Iraq’s interim governing coalition expressed similar reservations, calling for the Arab identity of Iraq to be preserved as Arabs formed 80 percent of the population. The Sunnis also demanded that Islam be enshrined in the constitution as “the main source of legislation” not “a main source,” a Sunni negotiator said.

Between them the Kurds and Shiites hold some 210 seats in the 275-member parliament—enough to push through the text. But the rules for October’s referendum specify that two-thirds of the voters in any three provinces can vote down the charter, and at least three are predominantly Sunni.

Hasani said the Shiites and Kurds had made some concessions in their final offer, particularly on plans for a Shiite autonomous region. “The draft constitution gives the right to establish federalism, but leaves the mechanism to form federal regions for the next elected parliament,” he said referring to new polls due to be held by mid-December.
Posted by:Steve White

#1  Sunni or later its gonna go for a vote.

Part of majority rule is that the majority gets to rule, and the minority gets to accept that.

That is correct, sir. Throw the sunnis a bone and get on with it.
Posted by: Captain America   2005-08-28 03:09  

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