Baghdad, Iraq – The speaker of Iraq’s Parliament announced a one-day extension early Friday in talks on Iraq’s new constitution – a fourth attempt to win Sunni Arab approval for the draft. But he said that if no agreement is reached, the draft would be presented to the people in an Oct. 15 referendum.
Hajim al-Hassani, speaking minutes after the midnight deadline, said that after meeting for three days, “we found that time was late and we saw that the matters will need another day in order to reach results that please everyone.” Earlier, however, a Sunni Arab negotiator said Shiites didn’t even show up for a late-night meeting, and two Shiite delegates told reporters they saw no reason why the draft presented to the legislature Monday could not be forwarded to the people for a referendum.
Although the constitution requires only a simple majority in the referendum, if two-thirds of the voters in any three of Iraq’s 18 provinces vote against it, the charter will be defeated. Sunni Arabs are about 20 percent of the national population but form the majority in at least four provinces.
Shiites and Kurds had accepted a draft on Monday but Sunni Arabs opposed it, and al-Hassani granted three more days to try to bring the Sunnis on board.
The parliament speaker said that discussions in the past three days were “very good in which points of views were exchanged.” He said they discussed federalism, references to Saddam Hussein’s Baath party and the constitution’s introduction.
Al-Hassani said discussions continued today and were attended by the Kurdish coalition, Iraqi List party of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and Sunni Arabs. After those discussions, he said, suggestions were taken to the Shiite alliance, the largest bloc in the National Assembly.
But compromise did not appear likely.
Senior Shiite negotiator Ali Dabbagh said that the Shiite alliance in parliament wants the people to decide on the constitution in the referendum and resist any further changes to the draft.
Some Shiites maintained there was no need for a parliamentary vote because the constitutional drafting committee had met its legal obligation by handing in a draft on Monday.
Al-Hassani, a Sunni who was elected on the mostly Sunni ticket headed by former President Ghazi al-Yawer, said “the constitution is a very important issue and we hope that tomorrow we will accomplish the work.” “We legally received the draft. We are optimistic, although there are some differences. But if we will not be able to reach agreements in the end, this constitution is going to be presented for the Iraqis in a Oct. 15 referendum.” “Legally we do not need the parliament to vote on the draft, but we only need a consensus so that all the Iraqis will say yes to the constitution,” he said. “I still believe that the door is wide enough for reaching agreements.”
