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Constitutional amendments are coming


Adam Montana
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Iraqi President in Erbil to talk Iraq constitution edits, protests with Kurdistan Region leaders

 

Link: https://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/04112019

Note: I meant to post this earlier, sorry it's late! Still relevant. :twocents: 
 
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President of Iraq Barham Salih greets Kurdish party leaders upon landing at Erbil International Airport on November 4, 2019, alongside President of the Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani (right

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraqi President Barham Salih landed in Erbil on Tuesday, to meet the President of the Kurdistan Region and Kurdish party leaders and discuss prospective amendments to Iraq’s constitution amid ongoing demonstrations across many of the country’s central and southern cities.

"We will discuss efforts aimed at the amendment of the Iraqi constitution so we can have a unanimous voice as the Kurdistan Region," Mustafa Saed Qadir, vice president of the Kurdistan Region, told Rudaw English on Monday. "Unanimity at this stage among Kurdistani political parties is important."

"Whenever a new development emerges, Kurdistani parties have in the past met. It is a normal thing to do now, to study the possibilities Iraq now faces,” Qadir added. “What matters is that the Kurdish parties will have to have a common stance."

President Salih, a Kurd, will take part in the meeting, senior media officer of the president Hana Qasim confirmed to Rudaw.

A wave of unrest broke over southern Iraq at the start of October as Iraqis took to the streets to demand government reforms tackling high unemployment, poor provision of services, and rampant corruption.

Under mounting pressure, Iraqi parliament took drastic steps on October 28 to try to abate anti-government protests, voting to dissolve provincial and local councils, cut privileges of top government officials, and form a committee tasked with amending the constitution within four months.

Viyan Sabri, a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) member of the Iraqi Parliament told Rudaw that the constitution amendment committee will convene later this week, but it remains unclear what articles will be put forth in the meeting for amendment.

"There are a lot of talks of changing the system from parliamentary to presidential, or the reduction of the number of MPs by increasing the number of voters they represent from 100,000 to 250,000 voters," she added.

Kurdistan Region president Nechirvan Barzani commented on the amendment of the Iraqi constitution while attending the sixth congress of the Kurdistan Bar Association on October 31. 

"The [2005] constitution designed for the new Iraq has been branded as advanced compared to the constitution of the majority of the countries in the region. However, not implementing its articles has created an atmosphere that means they are now talking about amending it. The main problem is not the constitution, but... that this constitution has been ignored."

"It must be clear to all that any amendments being made must reflect the reality of the differences and the uniqueness of the country's components and that the rights of all sides must be stipulated in it," Barzani went on to say.

"We will not impede any amendment aimed at improving the life and management of Iraq, but any amendment which will create inequality or harm democracy and federalism [will be impeded]," he warned. 

Parliament’s move to open up the constitution to amendments has worried Kurdish parties.

"There are threats on Kirkuk and Kurdistan and the main threat will be the denial of Kurdistani identity of disputed areas," Najmalid Karim, former Kirkuk governor said.

Musana Amin, another Kurdish MP in Baghdad, believes Kurds must do their best to "oppose the amendments" as opening up this subject will "contribute to growing instability and further complicate existing issues that cannot easily be tackled."

"The rights of Kurds and the Kurdistan Region – guaranteed and specified in the constitution – are all under threat, as per these people's desire,” Hoshyar Zebari, a politburo member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) told Rudaw’s Hiwa Jamal last week.

Kurds were influential in writing Iraq’s post-Saddam Hussein constitution and secured significant rights in that document.

Therefore "the constitution cannot be amended without the consent of Kurds, and the Iraqi parties very well understand that," Shakhawan Abdulla, a former Kurdish MP in the Iraqi Parliament said.

"Our only guarantee in the democratic, federal Iraq is this constitution. If we open this we will harm ourselves,” said Hoshyar Zebari, a member of the KDP leadership and Iraq's former foreign and finance minister.

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Iraq needs serious reform, not another ill-fated revolution

09-11-2019  |  695 Views 3 Comments
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Since early October, Baghdad and parts of southern Iraq have been racked by the most significant protests of the post-Saddam era. A generation of young Iraqis who grew up after Saddam’s regime appears to have lost patience with a corrupt status quo. Lack of jobs, lack of basic services, lack of adequate living conditions, and lack of future prospects give them little to lose. A heavy handed response against the protestors that has killed nearly 300 over the past few weeks seems to only enrage them more.

Their basic demands differ only a little from those of Arab Spring protests of a few years ago. Although Iraqis live under a real electoral democratic system, unlike Egyptians or Tunisians in the time of the Ben Ali regime, their elected officials appear incapable of delivering anything more than corruption and state paralysis. For similar reasons and under a similar system, protestors in nearby Lebanon express a similar end of patience for such a status quo.

The protestors in Iraq appear overwhelmingly to be poor Shiites. They blame Iran and its heavy hand in Iraq for much of their problems, despite their shared Shiite identity. The protestors regularly attack buildings and facilities owned by Iran and its Iraqi Shiite militia proxies. They call for an end to sectarianism in Iraq, which many believe serves as a cover for corrupt sectarian leaders to win elections and then divide the country’s wealth between them.

Exhausted from the war against ISIS and still under heavy suspicion by the government, Sunni Arabs in places like Mosul and Anbar have, in contrast, not taken to the streets. Few doubt their sympathy towards the Baghdadi and southern protestors’ rhetoric and demands, however. The very emergence of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq stemmed in large part from the same kind of grievances. 

In Kurdistan, the “other Iraq” remains quiet. With better infrastructure, an electricity grid that works, more jobs and relatively much improved services, the autonomous Regional Government bought itself more breathing room than authorities in Baghdad. Although Kurdistan’s people also complain of corruption, insufficient public services and what amounts to Iraqi Kurdistan’s own version of sectarian divisions (between the KDP and PUK), these problems remain much less serious than in the rest of Iraq.

If the protestors in the rest of Iraq retain a good idea of what they want – jobs, infrastructure, services, and clean government – how to get it seems much less clear. Calls for the resignation of Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi, new elections, a new constitution and a change of the current political system to turn it into a presidential one have been made. Unfortunately, none of these demands seem likely to improve things. In many cases, they will likely make the situation worse.

In office for little more than a year, Abdul-Mahdi is hardly responsible for Iraq’s current problems. Compared to Iraq’s previous prime ministers, he actually seems more sincere in his desire to fix the country’s ills and reconcile Iraq’s various sectarian communities. Kurdish leaders in Erbil regularly praise the new prime minister’s willingness to work with them to address Iraq’s long-standing problems and build new, durable solutions. He has also offered the protestors tangible things to help, including a basic income supplement, more jobs, cuts to salaries of high-ranking government officials, and reshuffling of his cabinet. A different prime minister will likely prove worse rather than better.

If efforts to change the overall political system lead to a new constitution and the election of a president instead of a prime minister, problems will only worsen further. A new constitution and a presidential system will undoubtedly centralize power, and most Middle Eastern countries – particularly Iraq – have played this record too many times before. Protestors decrying corruption must remain careful not to trade democratic rights for an equally corrupt centralized authoritarianism.

Although such nuances may escape many of the angry young people on the streets, demanding that elected officials actually respect and observe the current constitution would go a lot further towards fixing Iraq’s problems. The current law of the land provides for things like independent courts, a bicameral legislature, independent auditing commissions and similar mechanisms to reign in government malfeasance. Most of these were eviscerated under the long running mismanagement of ex-prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.

While calling for an end to Iranian domination of Iraq stands out as a reasonable and necessary demand of the protestors, Iraqis need to effect such a change in the next election by voting for parties and leaders who do not serve Iran’s interests over that of Iraqis. In the meantime, protestors might consider accepting Abdul-Mahdi’s offers and giving him a chance to enact them. Iraq needs serious reform rather than another ill-fated revolution.
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Thanks Adam. This is encouraging, the people are fed up. I hope this movement continues to grow and grow stronger to where real change can be made in the corrupt government. Maybe this is what we've be waiting for. At any rate (rate haha) I'm in it for the long haul and I haven't given up on Iraq.

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