Eng. Izdihar Mohammad al-Shathir
Director of the CNU woman's bureau

A boisterous argument seethed today on the veto of Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi on a term in the general elections new law, especially the first thereof because it does not give voting to expatriate Iraqi, since al-Hashimi is demanding to increase the number of compensatory seats earmarked for minorities and expatriates from 5% to 15% in the coming parliament.

Mr. al-Hashimi veto on the amendments ratified by the House of Representatives about the elections law will lead anew to redistribution of governorates seats, and such a redistribution will eat up from the number of other governorates seats, as such al-Hashimi has focused in his veto on the polling of the externally displaced but later debates turned to the voting of the internally displaced, and the distribution of seats, however this shift will conduce to an unmanageable issue for all political and parliamentary blocs are not willing to assign their governorates seats.

One among the agreements that has been posed is that the Commissariat of Elections is to assume the organization of polling lay a mechanism for the externally displaced, according to a special polling mechanism, and that the votes of those displaced abroad should return to governorates to which they originally belong in Iraq by way of adopting the closed–list and multiple circuits, such an agreement should not be construed as an amendment on the election law, and it does not require voting but rather a political deal between the blocs, and need not as well an enactment nor an amendment in case the Vice President has retracted his veto on the elections law, this measure will be indeterminate  in proportion of seats, and not within a legal stipulation but according to controls and regulations the Commissariat applies.

The majority of political blocs and forces see that al-Hashimi retraction of his veto on the law of elections would spare the country entering into the crucible of sectarian and ethnic partisanship, which Iraq has begun to overstep now, and in the same vein, the CNU, headed by Dr. Nehru Mohammad Abdel Kareem, called upon all forces participating in the political process to forsake selfishness and to get on with the wishes of Iraqi street, away from any moves that may lead to quibble over this wish, because the judgment of Iraqi voter will be smart against whoever wanted to bring Iraq back to the sectarian and ethnic corner.

However, a member of the House of Representatives has stated that the Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi alone bears the responsibility of constitutional vacuum which will arise in case of law has been vetoed, whereupon,  some politicians see that in case al-Hashimi sticks to the veto of law parliament will resort then to veto the last veto of the Vice President over again and this will leave things as they are and thus going back to the older laws for (2005) which were applicable at the previous elections, while others believe that the Parliament can formulate another law, in case the law has been vetoed, adjourn the elections or seek to mobilize 165 vote to pass the law. This unarguably confirms the presence of a rift in the structure of Iraqi political system, here, it is necessary to emphasize on the affiliation to homeland not to a race or community, so the sectarian address is beginning to fade from the current Iraqi scene, as well as, the situation of the country does not admit another veto so efforts must be concerted to ratify the elections law, and emphasize the necessity to establish a new chart raising the logo "Iraq to turn from a state of components to that of citizenship".

Obviously, insistence to this refusal and failure to reach a consensus between political blocs is what generates fear and suspicion, then what is the need of this? However, the attempts seeking to gain the affection of certain components is more of a rigging in the fate of country than being an electoral propaganda; furthermore, others ascribe that to anti national forces moving politically in the direction of settling the elections results in favor of a particular component while the rest of parties, which have not moved before this veto which is prompted by political motives and propagandas, will have to endure that;  nonetheless, al-Hashimi must tackle the question and deal with the Presidency Council by either approving or rejecting it, in order to appoint the date of elections and continue the process of building the state of law and institutions.

After several political sessions, deliberations and argumentations the House of Representatives passed the elections law and redistribution of the governorate shares, however, spokesperson of Kurdistan Coalition asserted that the coalition has received several assurances from the White House and the President Barack Obama concerning their demands before approving the wording or resolution.

On the other hand, Al-Araji stated that the House of Representatives has reached a consensual formula on the elections law as 41 seats are earmarked to Kurdistan territory, to which added another two extra seats of the compensatory seats, while governorates total shares of seats is 310 seats out of the total Council seats which amount to 350 seats including 15 compensatory seats, and in the same context, the official spokesperson Salah al–Obeidi described the way in which the amended law of elections was ratified as unconvincing and personal interest is overriding the national interest, and so, we are not satisfied with the way the elections law was ratified, for it reveals the presence of outbidding and preference for denominational interests, and also it discloses that the political process in Iraq is still liable to outbidding and interests  and have not seen a realistic reasoning in the interests of Iraqi people. Over and above, some Iraqi politicians see that vetoing the ballot has produced a sort of rift in the structure of political system, however, some observers of the Iraqi scene think that al-Hashimi veto on the first article of the elections law is exploited on the part of political parties to reinforce their gains in the election law and could divert the attention from the issue of being just with the displaced abroad, minorities inside and the small lists to completely different issue al-Hashimi has not vetoed, relating to the way the population of each governorate is enumerated, and thus its own seat share reflected in the next parliament; furthermore, al-Najifi has proclaimed his rejection of the wording reached by the House of Representatives for having added (3) seats to Kurdistan territory, considering that the procedures were improper, and just came as a result of lobbies and political blackmailing exercised on the House of Representatives and not legitimately.   

On the other hand, it was quoted in the statement of "Ishtar Democratic Coalition", composed originally of three Christian parties, that the elections law has disfigured the existence of our people and almost cancelled its historical affiliation to the Iraqi homeland which dates back to thousands of years before the Christ, when the law considered it a religious Christian component only removing there from its national and cultural identity and rendering it a group of people  with no particularity, identity or even national roots; also, the statement added that our people was subjected to prejudice and discrimination in the current amended version of the elections law for being the only component with the exclusion of Iraqi components covered by the quota "Sabian, Yazidi, Shabak".

Finally, we can conclude that the political process in Iraq will not possibly proceed with consensus, and that the law that has been ratified is not the ideal one to run the elections but the best that can be achieved by Iraq politicians following the intervention of the US President Barack Obama. So, for how long the US pressure will continue on the Iraqi politicians in order to come to terms on the simplest or most complex decisions; and for how long the people of the same nation linked by blood and origin will remain divided, we are one nation not ever divided by denominations, religions nor nationalities but one Iraq, one people and one hand and this one of the CNU goals posed by Dr. Nehru who called for change thru adjusting the route  of political process and stand firmly and decisively in the face of all foreign interventions in Iraqi affairs and cut the road in front of everyone who tries to tamper with the security of Iraq or Iraqis, and such a change and reform will not realize but only thru the political process and the democratic practices, the building of a national government representative of all Iraqis, a civil government joining all competent elements  capable to serve Iraqis, and promoting the security and service state of affairs  in a way to ensure a befitting standard of living.