Iraqi lawmakers fail to agree on elections

BAGHDAD – The Iraqi parliament broke for summer vacation Wednesday without passing a law that would have allowed provincial elections to be held this year, dealing a blow to hopes for bringing alienated Sunni and Shiite voices into the political process any time soon.

The parliament, which tried during a four-day special session to pass the legislation under pressure from the United States and United Nations, could not resolve differences over oil-rich Kirkuk, a mixed area that the Kurds wish to annex to their semiautonomous northern region.

Lawmakers had been set to adjourn last week when they scheduled the special session. But differences among Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen over Kirkuk ultimately could not be resolved.

Iraqi politicians, officials and Western diplomats have speculated that the political parties in government were never invested in holding a vote this year – fearing they would lose seats and influence on the provincial level. Senior politicians – including President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, and Vice President Tariq Hashimi, a Sunni – have been absent from Baghdad in the midst of the round-the-clock negotiations, both citing medical reasons.

The impasse left an uncertain situation in Kirkuk, where last week a suicide bomb and ethnic clashes killed 25 people. The delay also figured to add to frustrations in other mixed provinces, such as Baghdad, Nineveh and Diyala.

In Anbar province, Sunni tribes that joined U.S. forces in opposing Islamic extremists have wanted elections so they could try to wrest power from their Sunni rivals in the Iraqi Islamic Party.

The breakdown came amid a banner time for the Shiite-led Iraqi government, which has witnessed falling death rates, successful military campaigns in southern Iraq since the spring, and the return to the national government of Iraq’s main Sunni political bloc, which had boycotted the Cabinet for a year.

But fighting is still present in Iraq, and the relative calm is fragile. U.S. military commanders and Iraq experts worry that an unexpected event could set off a cycle of violence among dueling ethnicities and sects.

The political crisis started July 22 when Arabs and Turkmen in parliament surprised the Kurds, recent kingmakers in Iraqi politics, with the call for a secret vote on the election law’s clause dealing with Kirkuk. In a twist, even some of the Kurds’ longtime Shiite allies abandoned them, and the Kurds walked out as the law was approved.

The country’s three-member presidency council, headed by Talabani, then vetoed the law, citing the illegal secret ballot in parliament.

Efforts to rescue the legislation have gone into overdrive since Sunday, with meetings involving political bloc leaders, the United Nations and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker. At one point, President Bush phoned Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani in hopes of getting the Kurds to compromise over Kirkuk.

U.S. officials expressed dismay over the deadlock.

“The election law cannot be held hostage to the Kirkuk issue, so we hope very much that the council of representatives will continue to seek a compromise that will be adapted promptly,” U.S. Embassy spokesperson Mirembe Nantongo said.