Hameed
Majid Mousa, the leader of the Iraqi Communist Party, criticized the Law for
Provincial Councils Elections which was endorsed by the parliament last
Wednesday, because of deleting the article that would have allocated
minorities seats in the provincial councils and other issues.
Mousa
explained in an interview with radio Sawa that the draft law had stipulated
allocating these seats in provinces where there is a big proportion of
citizens from minorities, such as Basra, Baghdad and Duhok. He added that this
article had been deleted earlier because the UN mission in Baghdad and the
Regions and Provinces Commission in parliament did not reach an acceptable and
specific mechanism for selecting the representatives, which was unfortunate.
Mousa also
expressed his regret that members of parliament did not exert more efforts to
ensure the representation of minorities in the Law for Provincial Councils
Elections. He said that "more consultations and intensive dialogue should have
taken place in order to develop a position that guarantees the rights of
ethnic and religious minorities."
Mousa
stressed the need to take urgent action to rectify the flaw, pointing out that
there is still time to issue a supplement regarding this matter, or a decree
from the Higher Independent Electoral Commission or the Parliament.
Regarding the
article that deals with the use of religious symbols in election campaigns,
Mousa said that there is no problem with publishing the pictures of leading
figures who are politically active because they are political symbols. What
must not be used are the purely religious symbols and figures that do not
participate in any political activity so that they don’t
get exploited by one party against another. He applauded including the article
that prevents the use of religious symbols and worship places for
electioneering purposes.
Source:
"Tareeq
Al-Shaab" (People's Path), daily paper of the Iraqi Communist Party.
(28-9-2008)
