BAGHDAD — Iraq’s parliament Monday approved quotas guaranteeing minorities a handful of seats on the governing bodies of Iraqi provinces, an action that helps pave the way to regional elections but also angers Christians who had demanded greater representation.
Also Monday, three bombs in Baghdad killed at least seven people, most of them at a busy square targeted by twin blasts that exploded seconds apart during morning rush hour. Another bomb north of the capital killed one person.
No date has been set for the provincial vote, but it is due to take place by Jan. 31 and has been heralded as key to undoing lopsided power structures blamed for fueling sectarian violence. The minority-quota formula approved by lawmakers would guarantee a total of six seats spread across three provincial councils to Christians and three smaller minority groups: Yazidis, Sabians and Shabaks.
Of the 150 lawmakers present, 106 voted for the plan. It sets aside one seat for Christian parties on the provincial councils of Baghdad, Ninevah, and Basra. Sabians, a pacifist religious sect, will also receive one seat in Baghdad. Yazidis, from another religious sect, and Shabaks, an ethnic minority, will each have one seat on the Ninevah council.
Like Christians, the other groups have claimed persecution under the Shiite Muslim-led Iraqi government and demanded special protection when parliament in September passed the law setting the stage for provincial elections. That law failed to include special considerations for parties representing minorities, prompting protests by Christian lawmakers and weeks of wrangling to come up with a solution acceptable to small groups and to the Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni Arab parties vying for dominance.
The approved quotas were less generous than those in two other proposals, which would have granted a total of either eight or 12 seats to minority parties, and the choice illustrated the fears and distrust among lawmakers in heavily contested, ethnically mixed areas.
Sunnis Arabs had resisted setting aside large minority quotas on the 37-seat provincial council, fearful that minority groups might lean toward the Kurds and bolster Kurdish hopes of expanding their influence in the north. The 12-seat option rejected Monday would have set aside seven minority seats on the council.
Christian lawmaker Younadem Kana denounced the vote as an “insult” and said it showed the “fanaticism and racism” of Arabs fearful of Kurdish influence. The deal must be approved by the nation’s three-member presidency council, and Kana said he would demand a veto.
