The electoral law under criticism.

Sunday 22/11/2009 the electoral law for Iraq's january election has been voted in Baghdad's parliament. It was the second time the law was passed at the assembly. Adopted a first time on the 08, it came immediately under fierce criticism.
The number of representatives is to raise from 275 to 323; to decide how to distribute the new seats, the Iraqi High Electoral Commission relied on the ration cards statistics issued by the Ministry of Trade. But due to the movements of population caused by sectarian violence and political unrest, and the rampant corruption, the accuracy of these records is highly questionable - and so is their use as a reference to decide how to allocate parliamentary seats.
On the 48 additional seats, only three were to be given to the Kurd provinces, so reducing their representation in the parliament. The news sparkled outrage in Kurdistan. Massoud Barzani, president of the autonomous Kurdistan region, declared on the 17 that would the law not be modified, the Kurds would not take part in the elections.

For a reduced representation very likely means the end of the Kurds' demands on Kirkuk.
The city lies outside the boundaries of the autonomous Kurdistan, but is claimed by the Kurds as theirs. an article of the Iraqi constitution, article 140, is all about it. It states that a census, followed by a referendum, will decide of the fate of the city. But the implementation of the article is endlessly reported, and the more they wait, the less likely are the Kurds to ever gain control of the town.

But, finally, the mode of repartition of the new parliamentary seats was modified. Based on the food ration statistics from 2005, a growth ratio of + 2,8% will be added, to have an estimate of the population.
This new development was described as a victory by the Kurd parliamentaries in Baghdad as well as by the Kurdistan authorities. But it was immediately denounced by the former speaker of the Kurdistan assembly, Jawar Namiq. He said in an interview with Rudaw on the 24 that the additional seats distribution, on which attention was focused, was of menial interest and that far from achieving a victory the Kurd parliamentaries in Baghdad failed to address the actual problem, the parts of the electoral law about the vote in Kirkuk.
The way to deal with the highly disputed city, where are concentrated the conflicting interests of Kurds, arabs, Turkmens and others, led to the vote of the law to be reported countless times until a compromised was agreed. For it's what the electoral law is, a compromise opening the doors to any controversy, which had to be adopted because the parliament was reaching the deadline.
It says that the vote will be carried, but that the results won't be definitive before one year. In the interview he gave, Jawar Namiq says other parliamentary blocs in Baghdad will perceive the acceptation of the conditions on Kirkuk as a mark of weakness from the Kurdistan Alliance, representing the interests of Kurdistan in Baghdad. He asserts that the Kurdistan had the power to oppose these conditions and should have done so. Of interest is as well the fact that once again ration cards statistics will be used. It puts in evidence the reluctance of the autorities to carry a census, highly contentious, and likely to provoke unrest in the disputed territories of Kirkuk and its likes, where rival factions are ready to move thousands of people to artificially shift the demographic balance in their favour.

Anyway the vote of the electoral law on the 22/11/2009 is far from being a success. On 275 Iraqi parliamentaries, only 152 attended the vote. The Sunni parliamentaries boycotted the vote to protest against the number of seats given to the refugees - mainly Sunni - living outside Iraq in Syria or Jordan. As well, the law must now be approved by the presidential council, composed of the Iraqi president Jalal Talabani and two vice-presidents. One of them, Tariq al-Hashemi, vetoed the law.
His veto can be overturned by a new vote, requiring a 60% majority, at Baghdad's parliament.
A new round of negociations, agreements, arm-twistings, enticements, and interventions from US officials is so open.