07 December 2005
Iraqis Prepare To Elect Council of Representatives
Election marks final step in establishing democratic government
By David Shelby
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Iraqi voters return to the polls December 15 to choose a Council of Representatives, completing a three-stage electoral cycle aimed at establishing a democratic government.
The cycle began in January with the election of a Transitional National Assembly tasked with drafting a new constitution. The second stage took place in an October referendum in which 78 percent of Iraqi voters endorsed the proposed charter. (See related article.)
To prepare for the December 15 elections, more than 300 political entities and 19 coalitions have registered with the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq to run candidates for the 275 council seats.
Under Iraq’s elections law, 230 of the seats have been distributed proportionally among Iraq’s 18 governorates based on the number of voters registered in each governorate for the January 2005 elections. The remaining 45 seats will be distributed as “compensatory seats.” The compensatory system is designed to ensure representation for ethnic, religious and political constituencies dispersed in more than one governorate.
Council representatives will be elected for a four-year term of office. They will be charged with electing, by a two-thirds majority, a presidency council, which, in turn, will choose a prime minister from the largest bloc in the legislature. The prime minister will form a council of ministers to carry out the work of the government. The prime minister and council of ministers are subject to a majority vote of confidence in the council of representatives.
In addition to its normal legislative tasks, this first council will be charged with adopting implementing legislation for the constitution, and will monitor the highly sensitive issue of dealing with former leaders of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party, called the de-Ba’athification process.
The council also will have the power to review and suggest amendments to the constitution. It will form a representative committee to review the document and present recommended amendments within four months. Any changes will be subject to majority approval of the council and will be presented to the Iraqi voters for final approval within two months. This provision for a special process to consider constitutional amendments was seen as a gesture to Sunni Arabs who felt under-represented in the Transitional National Assembly due to low voter turnout in Sunni dominated areas during the January elections.
More than 70,000 independent observers and more than 150,000 political entities’ agents have been accredited by the electoral commission to monitor the December 15 vote. The electoral commission is encouraging the observers to be present at all of the approximately 6,200 voting centers around the country. This is a significant increase in the number of polling centers from the January elections, with the sharpest rise in new centers found in Sunni dominated Anbar and Ninewah provinces.
As with elections for the Transitional National Assembly, at least one in every three candidates on each candidate list must be a woman, a provision designed to meet the constitution’s goal of achieving at least 25 percent female representation in the council.
As with the January vote, expatriate Iraqis will be allowed to cast ballots in 15 countries in Europe, the Middle East, Australia and North America. But, in contrast to the January elections, out-of-country voters will be able to register and vote on the same day. Their votes will be counted towards the 45 compensatory seats.
For additional information, see Iraq’s Political Process.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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