Election Law Success in Iraq

As a follow up to my previous blog post:
Today, the Iraq election laws finally emerged out of the Presidency council – consisting of the president, a Kurd, and a Sunni vice president and a Shiite vice president. A Sunni lawmaker described the situation to the Washington Post, “Every party wants a law that would guarantee its interests and victory.”
On November 11th, Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi vetoed the laws twice and pushed for equal voting rights for Iraqis living abroad, most of whom are Sunnis. An editorial in the New York Times commented that, “[al- Hashemi] put in doubt Iraq’s second national election, a critical test of whether democracy can endure as the United States withdraws its troops… American officials were instrumental in the last compromise and need to put the same kind of effort into resolving this impasse.”
The new parliament will be expanded from 275 seats to 325 with over 15 seats reserved for religious and ethnic minorities. Election lists will be “open” and have the names of candidates rather than just the parties, as “closed lists” have had in the past. The election is currently scheduled for January 16th, but a month or two long delay is expected since, according to the Iraq constitution, the election laws must be passed 60 days before it is held. This timeline will have a heavy impact on the withdrawal of US troops, which are currently scheduled to end missions by August. Now, the troops are waiting to see the stability of Iraq until after polling and possibility through to the inauguration of the new government. Furthermore, US troops and resources in Afghanistan partially rely on the distribution in Iraq. This delay could very well foil President Obama’s exit plan of full withdrawal by August 2010, though at the same time troop departures could not begin without it. The White House immediately released a statement of approval regarding the Iraqi election law this evening.
Unfortunately, participants of the negotiation and government officials are not permitted to brief the media and thus details of the negotiations are not fully known. Washington has time and time been reported to be lobbying for the polls to be held on time but United Nations officials and American diplomats were not informed about what happened with the Presidency Council negotiations. New York Times cited Western diplomats gathering to “compare notes to see if they could make sense of the latest development”. A conscientious move was made to keep the election law decisions within the Iraq system, though US, UN, and other groups appeals strongly to high ranking lawmakers. Though it has been a struggle, perhaps the Iraq government is demonstrating that they are finally ready to stand on their own.