Iraq moves towards January election date

BAGHDAD (AFP) – Iraq on Monday moved towards finalising a date for its general election in January, a vote crucial to consolidating the war-torn nation's fledgling democracy and ensuring a complete US military exit.

MPs on Sunday finally passed the electoral law that will govern the contest, the country's second national polls since the American-led invasion that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein six years ago, after weeks of wrangling.

The decision was praised by US President Barack Obama and UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who said the upcoming vote was key to maintaining Iraq's stability and helping its people move towards lasting peace and national reconciliation. Obama applauds new law

Christopher Hill, the US ambassador to Baghdad, said January 23 was the probable date for the election and that the planned US troop withdrawal can proceed as scheduled now that the electoral law is in place.

"We're good to go on a January date," he told reporters in a conference call from the Iraqi capital late Sunday.

"The concern of course was had these deliberations gone on, then new decisions would have had to be made about the (military) drawdown."

US combat troops are due to leave Iraq by August next year ahead of a complete military pullout by the end of 2011.

The election was originally billed for January 16 but weeks of delays and haggling in parliament over how the ballot would proceed in disputed regions such as Kirkuk means this is now extremely unlikely, poll officials have said.

Qassim al-Abboudi, head of the Independent High Electoral Commission's (IHEC) legal office, told AFP on Monday that Iraq's presidential council would soon decide on the election date.

"It is possible," he said, when asked if January 23 would be voting day, without elaborating on other possibilities. Under the constitution the election must take place no later than January 31.

The ballot will differ from the first national polls in 2005 in that it is set to be fought on political rather than sectarian lines.

Electors, who under an open voting system will be able to choose either a single named candidate -- which favours high profile politicians -- or a party, will also be confronted by much more choice on their ballot paper than in 2005.

Two Shiite coalitions, including the State of Law grouping headed by Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, two Sunni blocs, two secular lists and three Kurdish groups comprise the main contenders.

However a total of 296 parties are set to campaign, compared with just 12 party lists in 2005.

The law also guarantees that at least 25 percent of MPs will be women and allocates at least eight parliamentary seats for Iraqi minorities, including five for Christians.

Maliki on Sunday said the electoral law was "a strong response to the terrorists and thugs of the former regime" of Saddam and "those who are trying to undermine Iraq's security and political process."

A compromise saw MPs decide that the election result will be provisional in Kirkuk and other provinces where there is disagreement over electoral rolls because of a high recent increase in respective Kurd and Arab populations.

Kirkuk's majority Kurds have long demanded incorporation into the region, arousing fierce opposition from the province's Arabs and Turkmen, who say the overthrow of Saddam prompted massive demographic change.

Arabs and Turkmen say a huge number of Kurds have settled in Kirkuk in the subsequent six years but they contend they were only returning to an area from which they had been forced out of during the now executed dictator's reign.

A committee of parliamentarians, officials from government ministries and IHEC, with the help of the UN, will have one year to review the vote in Kirkuk and cancel fraudulent ballots.