Mufid al-Jazairy, Member of
Parliament, said that the Iraqi Communist Party did not support the proposal
of some political blocs to allocate only 6 seats for minorities in the
provincial councils, during the parliament session last Monday, 3-11-2008.
Jazairy, who is a member of Iraqi
CP's Political Bureau, said in a statement given to the party central organ "Tareeq
Al-Shaab" (People's Path), that "the party considered the proposal to be
unfair to small national and religious components of the Iraqi society."
He explained that the party had
called on the parliament to adopt the proposal put forward by the United
Nations, describing it as being balanced. He said that the UN proposal
"ensures fair representation for the national and religious minorities in the
provincial councils of Baghdad, Mosul and Basra."
Jazairy added that "the supporters
of the adopted proposal refused to give the representatives of minorities 12
seats out of about 450 seats, as they considered that to be too many, and
instead cut the number by half."
The head of the UN Mission in Iraq
(UNAMI), Staffan de Mistura, had made a proposal that there should be 12 seats
allocated to representatives of minorities in provincial councils.
Jazairy expressed his regret that
proposal put forward by Iraqi CP leader Hamid Majeed Mousa (also a member of
parliament) was not adopted during consultations between the political blocs.
He said: "In an attempt to address the problem, comrade Mousa proposed that
the 12 seats, allocated to representatives of minorities, be considered
additional seats, excluded from the number already allocated to each
provincial council."
Jazairy explained that the Iraqi
CP's rejection of the proposal approved by the Parliament stems from its
consistent position, in support of the minorities and their cultural and
administrative rights. "It is a position that has always been adhered to by
the Party, throughout 75 years of its history," he said.
Source: "Tareeq Al-Shaab"
(People's Path), central organ of the Iraqi Communist Party, 5-11-2008.
