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After four months of political wrangle, Iraq’s Parliament passed a long-delayed election law on Sunday. The session was headed by first deputy speaker Sheikh Khaled Al Attiyeh as Parliament Speaker Iyad Al Samarraie headed to Qatar to participate in Iraq’s reconstruction conference.
The law's passage had been repeatedly stumbled by sharp rows over how voting would take place in the northern city of Kirkuk.
Under the legislation passed Sunday, the vote in Kirkuk would be held just like in other regions around the country, but the votes and those in other disputed areas could be subject to a special review if it is determined that there was a large population increase.
The election law stipulates to determine the number of Parliament seats according to latest statistics available at the Trade Ministry without pointing out whether the number of seats in the next Parliament would remain 275 or mount to 300 as some lawmakers called for weeks earlier.
The law grants as well a quota for minorities including five seats for Christians distributed among the following provinces: Baghdad, Nineveh, Dahuk, Arbil and Kirkuk. One seat would be granted to Yazidis, another seat to Shabak in Nineveh and one more for Sabians in Baghdad.
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