Iraq Panel Proposes National Elections For Jan. 21

Iraq's electoral commission on Monday submitted a proposal to hold national elections on Jan. 21, five days after the previously scheduled date.

Parliament cleared the way for the national poll when it passed a crucial election law Sunday night after weeks of political haggling. The elections had been slated for Jan. 16 and there were concerns a significant delay might slow the U.S. troop withdrawal, and undermine Iraq's fragile stability.

Lawmakers had been debating the legislation for weeks and were deadlocked over how to apportion votes in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, a city claimed by both Arabs and Kurds.

"We have sent the date on which we can hold the elections, which is Jan. 21, and have informed the presidency council so that it can issue a presidential decree as to the new date," the head of the Independent High Electoral Commission, Faraj al-Haidari, told The Associated Press.

Al-Haidari said the commission has also determined there will be 323 seats in the next parliament, up from 275 in the current parliament. The increase in seats is based on a formula sketched out in the election law that calls for a representative for each 100,000 people, using statistics provided by the Ministry of Trade.

The ministry gathers numbers from the food ration cards that Iraqis use, a relic from the Saddam Hussein era.

U.S. officials have been following the election debate closely for any sign it might affect the withdrawal of American combat troops, but Sunday night after the vote, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Christopher Hill said the troop drawdown was on schedule.

Military commanders have said the U.S. troop withdrawal would start in earnest about 60 days after the vote, the idea being that the country would be on stable footing by then.

The law's passage had been repeatedly delayed by sharp disagreements over how voting would take place in the northern city of Kirkuk, claimed by both Arabs and Kurds, and a major flashpoint in the country.

Kurds consider Kirkuk a Kurdish city and want it part of their self-ruled region in northern Iraq. During the rule of former dictator Saddam Hussein, tens of thousands of Kurds were displaced under a forced plan by Saddam to make Kirkuk predominantly Arab, though many of these have since returned.

The Arab-led central government vehemently opposes anything that would remove Kirkuk from its control.

Under the legislation passed Sunday, the vote in Kirkuk would be held just like in other regions around the country, but the votes could be subject to a special review if it is determined that there was a more than 5 percent increase in the voter rolls from 2004 to 2009. Arabs and the Turkomens claim Kurds have packed the city with immigrants to tip the balance in their favor.

The legislation did not include any guaranteed seats for Arab and Turkomen lawmakers from Kirkuk, something which had been discussed in earlier versions.

The law passed with 141 votes, but it was not immediately known how many of the parliament's 275 members voted against the legislation or even attended the session. Low turnouts are common in Iraq's parliament, which often does not have enough people to form the necessary 138-person quorum.

"It's a good step that we have a resolution to this and have elections," said Michael Wahid Hanna, an analyst at the New York-based Century Foundation.

However, he added that the disputes such as the long-brewing debate over the election law, have paralyzed Iraq's political process and "have shown that it's incapable of solving the big questions," such as how to deal with disputed territories.