Presidential panel approves elections law

BAGHDAD | Iraq’s presidential council on Friday ratified a law that paves the way for the first provincial elections in four years, officials said.

U.S. officials hope the election will give greater representation to minority Sunni Arabs and disaffected members of the Shi’ite majority.

Friday’s ratification will allow preparations to go ahead for the vote, which must be held by Jan. 31. But it came only after Iraqi lawmakers agreed to set aside the divisive issues of power sharing in an oil-rich northern region and the representation of minorities.

Iraq’s parliament approved the law unanimously on Sept. 24 after months of deadlock centering on a Kurdish-Arab dispute over the city of Kirkuk, which the Kurds seek to incorporate into their semiautonomous region in the north.

But Christians, Yazidis and other minorities objected to the exclusion of an article that would guarantee them a certain number of seats on the local councils.

Firyad Rawndouzi, a Kurdish lawmaker, said the three-member panel led by President Jalal Talabani signed the law Friday and asked parliament “to solve the minorities problem.”

Many Sunnis and some Shi’ites boycotted the last provincial election in January 2005, enabling Shi’ite religious parties and the Kurds to win a disproportionate share of seats.

The 275-member Iraqi parliament had been heavily criticized for its inability to pass the law needed to establish the rules and guidelines for the vote. The election had been expected as early as Oct. 1, then the date was pushed to the end of December.

U.S. officials have complained privately that Iraqi politicians have failed to take advantage of the sharp drop in violence - down 80 percent since last year, according to the U.S. military - to forge lasting power-sharing agreements.

The approval from Mr. Talabani and his deputies, Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi and Shi’ite Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, was especially significant because they had vetoed a previous version over the summer.

That measure had been approved by parliament despite a Kurdish walkout in anger over Kirkuk. Kurdish legislators agreed to the latest proposal after all sides accepted a U.N. compromise to put off the vote in Tamim province, which includes Kirkuk, and form a committee to recommend separate legislation for elections there by March 31.

In separate developments, a U.S. soldier was killed Thursday by a roadside bomb near the predominantly Shi’ite city of Amarah, 200 miles southeast of Baghdad, the military said Friday.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte arrived Friday in Iraq for talks with senior government officials on political, security and economic progress in Iraq, the U.S. Embassy said. The visit comes as U.S. and Iraqi negotiators are trying to reach agreement on a security deal to replace a U.N. mandate for foreign forces in Iraq, which expires at the end of the year.