Iraq parliament clears way for Jan. 21 election
Last Updated: Monday, November 9, 2009 | 8:17 AM ET
CBC News
The head of Iraq's electoral commission said the country could hold national elections on Jan. 21, five days after the scheduled date but sooner than American observers feared.
Faraj al-Haidari, head of the Iraqi electoral commission, said a law passed in parliament on Sunday broke a political stalemate in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and cleared the way for a Jan. 21 election date.
President Jalal Talabani and two vice-presidents must still approve the law before it is enacted, said al-Haidari.
The elections had been slated for Jan. 16, but weeks of debate over how to conduct the vote in Kirkuk had U.S. officials concerned that a delay might affect plans to end combat operations by Aug. 31, 2010 and withdraw troops by the end of 2011.
U.S. ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill said Sunday the troop withdrawal was on schedule now that the law was in place.
City at heart of Kurdish-Arab dispute
Kirkuk was a contentious city for election officials because of major demographic changes that have taken place since voting took place in 2004.
Ethnic Kurds said 2004 voter lists did not accurately reflect the influx of Kurds to the city since then, many of whom returned to the city after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Kurdish leaders consider the city the ancient capital of their people and want to annex it and the surrounding Tamim province into their self-ruled region in northern Iraq.
Arabs and Turkmen are opposed to a United Nations proposal that 2009 lists be used, however, on the grounds the Kurds have deliberately moved to the region to tip the demographic balance in their favour and gain control of the nearby oil fields. They also want the city to remain under central government control.
The law agreed to on Sunday called for current voter lists to be used, but allowed for a review of the results if there was an unusual increase in registered voters in the past five years.
With files from The Associated Press
