Iraqi Presidential Council Withdraws Objection to Local Elections Law
By VOA News
19 March 2008
Iraq's presidential council has withdrawn its objection to a provincial elections law seen as key to promoting reconciliation among rival political factions.
In a statement Wednesday, the council said the law will be sent to the Justice Ministry to be published in the official newspaper in a few days.
At the same time, the council said it would work with parliament on possible amendments to the law.
The provincial elections are due to be held by October 1. They are seen as a chance to draw more disenfranchised Iraqis, especially minority Sunnis, into the political process and away from the insurgency.
Many Sunnis boycotted similar provincial polls in 2005.
Wednesday's development came five years after the start of the Iraq war and at the end of a unity conference aimed at reconciling differences among Iraq's political factions.
Iraq's main Sunni Muslim bloc boycotted the conference and a Shi'ite party loyal to anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada al-Sadr walked out of the event. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is under pressure from the United States to unite Iraq's political factions.
In the latest violence, the U.S. military says its troops accidentally killed at least three policemen and wounded another in the northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk.
Also on Wednesday, Iraqi police say a female suicide bomber killed four people and wounded 12 others near a police patrol in Balad Ruz in volatile Diyala province. At least one police officer was killed and three were wounded in the attack, the latest suicide bombing carried out by a woman.
Separately, the U.S. military say one U.S. soldier died in a vehicle rollover in Iraq's Diyala province.
Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.
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