Iraq Presidential Council Rejects Elections Measure
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BAGHDAD — Iraq’s presidential council rejected today a measure setting up provincial elections — seen as a key step to develop Iraq’s nascent democracy — in the latest setback to American-backed national reconciliation efforts.
The three-member panel approved the 2008 budget and another law that provides limited amnesty to detainees in Iraqi custody.
The three laws were approved as a package by the Iraqi parliament on February 13. The move drew praise from the Bush administration, which had sought passage of a provincial powers law as one of 18 benchmarks to promote reconciliation among Iraq’s Sunni and Shiite Arab communities and the Kurdish minority.
“No agreement has been reached in the Presidency Council to approve the provincial elections draft law and that it has been sent back to the parliament to reconsider the rejected articles,” the presidential council said in a statement.
The panel is composed of President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, a Shiite vice president, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, and a Sunni vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi.
