IRAQ - New Electoral Law Eludes Parliament.

On Oct. 15 the Iraqi Council of Representatives (parliament) failed to pass a new electoral law, postponing a vote to the following week. On Oct. 13, US Ambassador Christopher Hill and the top US commander in Iraq, Lt-Gen Ray Odierno had urged the MPs to pass thhis law, crucial to organising the Jan. 16 legislative elections the Obama administration considered key to withdrawing American combat troops. They appealed to MPs "to act expeditiously on this important legislation that will set the terms for successful, transparent political participation in this milestone event". On Oct. 12 UN representative Ad Melkert voiced similar concerns.

Hill and Odierno had underlined US concerns about the possible consequences of the MPs missing the Oct. 15 deadline for the law's passage. US and Iraqi officials have warned that postponing the legislative elections beyond January would lead to violating the constitution and throwing Iraq's nascent political system into limbo. Two contentious issues held up the legislation.

The first is how the vote should be held in the oil-rich Kirkuk contested by Arabs, Kurds and Turkomans. The results there could be deployed by parties to reinforce their claims over that area. The second is how to organise the ballot - whether voters will choose a closed electoral list, an open list for individual candidates or a mixture of both.

Sunni MP Ezzeddine al-Dawla said: "Every party wants a law that would guarantee its interests and victory". Independent and secular Shi'ite MP Wa'el Abdul-Latif said: "We do not have solutions". It was speculated on Oct. 17 that, if the MPs failed to pass the new law, the legislative elections could be organised under a 2005 law by which voters choose only a closed electoral list, not individual candidates. After the election, party leaders would then name politicians to occupy the seats they won.

Grand Ayatullah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's leading Shi'ite religious authority, has denounced that law, insisting on an open list for individual candidates as a way to bring new figures into the political fray.

It is politically impossible for any Shi'ite party or politician to openly contest Sistani's will, meaning some version of the open list is likely. Sunni politician and former parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani recently said those who insisted on the closed list were executing a foreign conspiracy against Iraq's democratic process. This was an indirect reference to the now militarised Shi'ite theocracy of Iran and the Alawite/Ba'thist regime Syria - players in the Iran-led axis of anti-US/anti-Israel forces in the GME - as both are backing parties loyal to them.

Maleki and his allies, including the new al-Wasat (centre) party leader Muwaffaq al-Rubai'ei, have stressed the importance of the open list, vital to the country's democratic process. The FT on Oct. 14 quoted Muhammad Jawad Gilian, "who owns a mobile phone store in Tweirij, south of Baghdad", as saying: "We will not vote if they adopt the closed list system. We want to know who we are voting for. We want to elect people who'd work for us, people we can trust". Top US military spokesman Brig-Gen Stephen Lanza has said: "I really think the elections will be a point of departure".

Parliament's Sunni Arab Speaker Iyad al-Samarra'ei had warned on Oct. 12 that plans to adopt an open voting system may fail because issues over Kirkuk remained unresolved. In a statement posted on the website of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP), of which he is a leading member, Samarra'ei said "MPs will be obliged to fall back on the old law - that is the reality" if Kirkuk's status was not resolved. He said Arabs and Turkomans in Kirkuk did not accept Kurdish claims of demographic superiority.

Iraqi Kurds have long striven to expand their northern territory beyond its current three provinces to other areas where the population was historically Kurdish, leading to a dispute with Baghdad over a tract of land centred around Kirkuk. Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution calls for a referendum to decide Kirkuk's fate, which Kurds have long wanted to make the capital of their autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), an aim strongly opposed by that area's Arabs and Turkomans. Parliament was set to finalise discussion of the election law before end-October.

Samarra'ei called on "all factions to find a solution" so that MPs could discuss the new law for open lists. MPs moved earlier this month to adopt the controversial closed voting system. The proposal triggered Sistani's intervention, who called for MPs to accept an open process for the elections. More than 1,000 Iraqis took to the streets on Oct. 10 to protest the move towards a closed voting system. An open system listing the names of candidates and their parties was used in provincial polls held on Jan. 31, 2009, which were won by Maleki and his allies. The UN's envoy in Iraq has called on MPs to "clarify the legal framework for the elections in the coming week".