17 July 2008
Will the Iraqi Parliament ever be able to unite the various sects in Iraq? It’s been over five years since we invaded Iraq including a surge in troops to give the Iraqi Parliament time to work out it’s problems and they still are not able to reach a meeting of the minds. This time the Kurds are protesting an election law and the entire bloc of Kurdish lawmakers walked out of a Parliament session earlier in the week. This kind of behavior is blocking provincial council elections to take place this fall. There are 275 members of the Iraqi Parliament and the Kurds represent about a fifth of them.
There is a political power struggle among the Kurdish, Arab and Turkmen in the oil-rich northern province of Tamim and its ethnically mixed capital, Kirkuk. As the Kurds claim an ethnic majority in Tamim, they are deciding whether to stay under Baghdad’s administration or join the Kurdish regional government. Nationwide provincial elections, scheduled for Oct. 1, appears unlikely. Iraq too has problems with attachments to bills that they vote on. While these political squabbles continue so does the killing of US military and Iraqi civilians. Trying to push democracy down the throats of Iraqi’s does not seem to be working so let’s start pulling out our combat troops now.
Several issues in the proposed election law have provoked a lot of debate. One of the issues is whether to switch to an open list system of elections, where voters can choose individual candidates rather than parties. The Kurds walked out before any issues came up for discussion. It doesn’t look like the parliament is getting much done on our dime.
Entries (RSS)