On the face of it, the veto of Iraq’s new election law by Vice President Tariq Al-Hashemi may complicate matters for Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki and Americans. Hashemi blocked the legislation on the single ground that he believes that more than five percent of the seats should be allocated to Iraqis living abroad.
Since the majority of those who fled the country are Sunnis and Hashemi is leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party, a largely Sunni grouping, his intervention does smack of special pleading. What it is not, however, is unconstitutional, as Al-Maliki immediately alleged. As one of the three veto-armed members of Iraq’s Presidential Council, Hashemi is acting constitutionally. Whether his move is wise is another matter.
It took the Iraqi Parliament 10 tries before it agreed the election law, finally paving the way for a ballot originally planned for next January. As a result of the Hashemi veto, the election commission has put all plans on hold. A January ballot now looks most unlikely. The vice president insists he has no problems with any other part of the election law but wants the seats for which expatriate Iraqis can elect MPs to be raised to 15 percent of the total. This figure is not only unacceptable to the majority of Iraqi legislators, but is also inherently unreasonable. The harsh reality is that the estimated four million Iraqis who were forced to flee their country are not confident of returning home even if they wish to play a full role in the democratic process and help in the immense economic and social rebuilding work.
A 10 percent seat allocation would on that basis will be realistic, not least because it is far from clear that there is a real clamor among expatriates to be given such representation. Hopefully Hashemi is actually thinking of a figure nearer 7.5 percent or would be prepared to accept the sort of workaround agreed with the Kurds on seat allocation for areas in the north of the country which have equally mixed communities.
Hashemi certainly needs to cut a new deal quickly. It is not simply that delayed elections risk political drift. There are some radical Kurdish leaders, also unhappy with the new electoral law, who want their northern part of the country to boycott the ballot altogether, as a way of underlining their region’s already considerable autonomy. Such a dangerous development will be encouraged if this new problem with the election law drags on.
Of no less importance is the impact of a delay on the status of the US occupation forces. US President Barack Obama is counting on a clean and successful election to boost his military withdrawal. Iraqi security forces are now by and large coping well with the men of violence. The bulk of US troops should go, if possible ahead of schedule. Hashemi’s intervention, however, jeopardizes the US departure. Al-Maliki does have a point when he accused the vice president of not taking into account “the higher national interest”. This issue really must be resolved quickly and amicably.
