Baghdad, Iraq – Iraq’s parliament voted Wednesday to reverse last-minute changes to rules for next week’s referendum on a new constitution after the United Nations said they were unfair.
Sunni Arabs responded by dropping their threat to boycott the vote and promised to reject the charter at the polls.
U.N. and U.S. officials welcomed the reversal, saying it helped restore integrity to the crucial Oct. 15 referendum, and urged all Iraqis to participate.
The United Nations, which was supervising the referendum, and U.S. officials had pressed Iraqi leaders to drop the rule change, which would have made it nearly impossible for the constitution to be defeated and jeopardized efforts to bring Sunnis into the political process.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan also welcomed the move.
Meanwhile, a suicide bomber attacked a mosque packed with Shiite Muslim worshipers marking the first day of Ramadan on Wednesday evening, killing at least 36 people and wounding 95, Iraqi officials said.
After the parliament’s decision, Sunni Arab leaders dropped their threats to boycott the upcoming vote. American and U.N. officials were eager to avert the boycott because it would have deeply undermined the constitution’s credibility.
Now, Sunni Arab leaders are gearing up to try to veto the constitution at the ballot box.
“With this result, the Sunni Arabs will be able to defeat the constitution, if there is honesty and an international supervision on the process,” said Saleh al-Mutlaq, a top Sunni Arab politician.
Washington hopes majority approval for the constitution will unite Iraq’s disparate factions and erode support for the country’s bloody insurgency, paving the way to eventually begin withdrawing foreign troops.
But it wants Sunni Arabs to participate even though they are campaigning to defeat the charter. Many Sunnis oppose the charter and want it rewritten, believing it would divide Iraq and leave Shiites in the south and Kurds in the north with virtual autonomy and control over Iraq’s oil wealth, while isolating the minority with little power or revenue in central and western areas.
U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack had understated praise for the decision and indicated that U.S. officials had shared the U.N. concern that a rule change could violate international voting standards.
Sunni Arabs, who make up 20 percent of Iraq’s 27 million population and are believed to be the backbone of the insurgency, were dominant under former President Saddam Hussein but lost influence after his ouster. The majority Shiites and the Kurds overwhelmingly support the constitution.
Under the restored election rules, Sunnis can defeat the document if they get a two-thirds “no” vote in any three provinces, even if a nationwide majority approves the charter. Sunnis have a chance of doing so in four of 18 provinces.
The Shiite-dominated parliament tried to close that loophole Sunday by passing a new interpretation of the rules, determining that a simple majority of those who cast votes was needed to pass the constitution but that two-thirds of all registered voters had to vote “no” in three provinces to defeat it.
The Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.
