Iraqi VP vetoes election law
Updated: Wednesday, November 18, 2009
17:00GMT—12:00PM/EST
Washington, 18 November (WashingtonTV)—One of Iraq’s two vice presidents on Wednesday vetoed part of an election law that had paved the way for parliamentary elections in January, putting the vote in doubt.
Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, a Sunni, said he had vetoed part of the law because it did not allocate enough seats to Iraqis displaced abroad.
The veto, he said, was a move “to deliver justice to Iraqis living abroad”, reports the Washington Post.
Hashemi insisted that the number of seats reserved for displaced people increase from 5 percent to 15 percent of the total number of seats in parliament.
He put the number of displace Iraqis at around four million, reports AFP. Most of them are Sunni Arabs.
The law, which lawmakers approved earlier this month after much delay, will now go back to parliament for further discussion, according to the BBC.
Iraq’s election commission has halted all preparations for the vote until an amended law is approved, an reports Reuters.
The election, which was planned for between 18 and 23 January, is seen as a prerequisite to the U.S. meeting its goal of pulling out combat troops by August 2010.
Sources: Washington Post, Agence France-Presse, BBC News, Reuters
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