Iraqis miss third deadline on constitution

Approval of Iraq’s new constitution may end up out of the hands of politicians, after a third deadline for various factions to agree on a draft expired.

Sunni negotiators today said the issue of federalism remained the key sticking point in the process.

Earlier today, after the latest deadline to complete the constitutional draft fell by the wayside, parliamentary speaker Hajim al-Hassani announced a one-day extension in talks on the new constitution – a fourth attempt to win Sunni Arab approval.

But he said that if no agreement was reached on the wording of the draft, the document could bypass parliament and be decided in a nationwide referendum on October 15.

Although al-Hassani, a Sunni who was elected on the mostly Sunni ticket headed by former President Ghazi al-Yawer, said he remained hopeful of a deal, some delegates said agreement was unlikely on the principal issue facing negotiators.

“Federalism is now the core issue. In light of Kurdish intransigence it makes it difficult to hope for a compromise,” said Sadoun Zubaydi, a Sunni member of the drafting committee.

How to reform Iraq’s former highly centralised government structur has emerged as the most contentious issue in the process of drafting the new constitution because it reflects the vastly different experiences of three main communities – Shiite and Sunni Arabs and Kurds – since the modern Iraq was created by British colonialists in the 1920s.

Kurds and the majority Shiites bitterly recall decades of oppression at the hands of the British, the subsequent royal government and Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship and believe federalism is the best way to prevent a new dictator, while the Sunnis – who have traditionally dominated the central government – see a loose federal structure as a recipe for the eventual disintegration of Iraq.

Negotiators said further meetings between the delegation leaders were scheduled for this afternoon.

Zubaydi said the Sunni delegation had proposed granting the Kurdish north - consisting of three provinces – full federal status, with decentralised local government for the remaining 15 provinces.

The Sunnis and the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite bloc in parliament, joined in blocking Kurdish demands for eventual self-determination for their northern provinces – a codeword for secession.

Sunnis also strongly oppose the Kurdish demand the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk be included in their federal entity.

They maintain Kirkuk’s population is equally divided between Sunni Arabs, Kurds and the Turkmen minority, with a smaller Chaldian Christian community, and therefor cannot be considered part of the Kurdish area.

With repeated missed deadlines and no sign of compromise, a process designed to bring the country’s disparate ethnic, cultural and religious groups closer together appeared instead to be pushing them further apart.

Shiite leaders signalled they had lost patience with protracted negotiating and wanted to refer the draft approved by them and the Kurds last Monday to the electorate.

Shortly after the midnight deadline parliamentary speaker al-Hassani said that another day will be needed to try to achieve compromise on the main sticking points.

If no deal can be reached, the document would skip parliament and be decided by voters in a referendum.

“If we will not be able to reach agreements in the end, this constitution is going to be presented to the Iraqis in an October 15 referendum,” he said.

Al-Hassani said discussions over the previous three days were “very good, in which points of views were exchanged.”

He said they focused on federalism, references to Saddam Hussein’s Baath party and the constitution’s preamble.

The Shiite alliance and the Kurds together control 221 of the 275 parliament seats and could win easily in a parliamentary vote on the charter, which requires only a majority. And with 60 per cent of the population, the Shiites and their Kurdish allies are gambling the draft would win approval in the referendum.

However, the perception that the Shiites and Kurds pushed through a document unacceptable to the Sunnis could sharpen religious and ethnic tensions.

US President George Bush’s administration expressed optimism that an agreement would be reached.

“I think if Iraqi leaders say that they need a few days more to complete a historic document that will lay a foundation for a new and free Iraq, I think that that is certainly understandable,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

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 per cent of the national population, but form the majority in at least four provinces. Sunni clerics have begun urging their followers to vote down the charter in the referendum if Sunni interests are not served.

If voters reject the constitution, parliament will be dissolved and elections held by December 15 to form a new one. The new parliament would then start drafting a new constitution.