Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> JURIST - The Paper Chase

Legal News

: JURIST - The Paper Chase

Kurdistan parliament delays constitutional referendum

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The Kurdish Parliament announced Friday that it was postponing a public referendum on approval of the Constitution of Kurdistan. The vote had previously been scheduled to coincide with parliamentary elections later this month, but parliamentary president Adnan Mufti said that the election commission was unable to organize both votes on the same day for logistical reasons. MPs in the semi-autonomous region of Iraq approved the constitution by a vote of 96-15 in June. Kurdistan's constitution has been controversial in Iraq. Last month, Shi'ite, Sunni and secular members of the Iraqi Parliament criticized the constitution, saying that its broad assertions of power and claim to disputed areas such as Kirkuk made it both politically divisive and unconstitutional. In July 2008, Kurdish members of the Iraqi Parliament walked out to protest a proposed election bill that would establish a provincial council in Kirkuk to include equal numbers of Kurdish, Arabs and Turkmeni representatives.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on July 10, 2009 (boomark / email).