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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (253768)	10/4/2005 5:07:12 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573988

Btw, did you hear about this? Iraq "changed the rules" on the constitutional referendum. Instead of 2/3 of the voters in 3 provinces voting no would kill it, they changed it to 2/3 of registered voters voting no. I said a while back that they will do anything to fix the vote... it's too important (and profitable) to too many people. Iraq parliament may review referendum rules By Luke Baker 6 minutes ago The United Nations expects Iraq's parliament to review rules on a forthcoming constitutional referendum after the world body criticized a decision making it harder to block the charter, a U.N. official said on Tuesday. "We have expressed our position to the national assembly and to the leadership of the government and told them that the decision that was taken was not acceptable and would not meet international standards," Jose Aranaz, a legal adviser to the U.N. electoral team in Iraq, told Reuters. "Hopefully by tomorrow the situation will be clarified." The United States echoed the U.N.'s concerns, saying Iraqi leaders should not depart from the agreed roadmap to democratic governance. Iraq's parliament made a ruling on Sunday determining that for the October 15 referendum to pass, half of those who turn out to vote across the country would have to say "Yes." However, a clause setting a two-thirds "No" vote in at least three of 18 provinces as a veto on the charter would be interpreted to mean two-thirds of all registered voters, rather than voters on the day. In other words, parliament was interpreting the word "voters" in the interim constitution in two different ways in the same article. That critical article reads: "The general referendum will be successful and the draft constitution ratified if a majority of the voters in Iraq approve and if two-thirds of the voters in three or more governorates do not reject it." The decision by the parliament, where Shi'ites and Kurds have an overwhelming majority, threatened to further alienate the Sunni Arab minority, many of whom are opposed to the constitution and are hoping to defeat it at the referendum. "They cannot have a double interpretation in the same sentence," Aranaz said. "The interpretation, which we asked for two and a half months ago, came late and it came wrong." He said he expected parliament to meet on Wednesday, discuss the issue and announce that it was altering its decision. STRONG U.N. ROLE The intervention by the United Nations marked the most forceful stance it had taken in Iraq's political process since it was brought in by the former U.S. administrators to help decide on the make-up of an interim government to take over from the Americans. The fact that the United Nations had made its concern public showed how worried it was that Iraq's tentative move toward democratic politics could be sullied by parliament's move. Aranaz said that if the problem, which already prompted some Sunni Arabs to call for a boycott of the referendum, was not solved it would compromise the legitimacy of the referendum. "If this had gone ahead it would have seriously compromised the exercise," he said. "It would be moving the goalposts at the end of the game. "We had to make them understand that our role is to secure the credibility and the genuineness of the process." Since Iraq's Sunni Arabs have a majority in at least three provinces, they are hoping that with a massive mobilization of the vote, they can defeat the constitution, which was largely drafted by the Shi'ites and Kurds. If they are required to mobilize two thirds of registered voters, not just voters, it would be next to impossible to defeat the referendum. Aranaz indicated that if the decision were not changed, it might prompt the United Nations to consider withdrawing its stamp of approval for the referendum, having given its blessing to the result of elections held in January this year. "They said they were very keen to have the United Nations on board for the referendum," he said, explaining the government's response when the U.N. raised its concerns. The United States echoed the U.N.'s concerns, albeit in less forceful language, saying Iraq's steps toward democracy should be in line with the TAL -- the law that outlined rules for the transition from U.S. occupation to self-governance. "They need to respect the TAL -- not only the letter, but the spirit of the TAL," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters. "We think that, whatever the result of their discussions may be, that they should aim to broaden the political consensus."