Three bills passed the Iraqi parliament today. One on provincial powers, one granting amnesty to thousands of mostly Sunni uncharged prisoners, and the 2008 budget. They used classical log-rolling to get it done. By passing three bills at once, everyone got something they were happy about. The need for such logrolling was predicted in a piece by Ilan Goldberg who argued that trying to pass the benchmarks one at a time because all the issues were linked.
Apparently the vote was unanimous (although it was arranged that those who objected would have a chance to leave the chamber first). That seems odd to me, but hey maybe it ties into Iraqi political culture. 206 of the 275 were in attendence.
On government structure, the provincial powers law, which I’m told is among the most important of the laws that need to get past, devolves a lot of power to the provinces. In addition, Kurdistan gets 17% of the budget after certain national ministries, like Foreign Affairs and Defense, are removed. However, that’s just a one year compromise.
The provincial election date was apparently controversial as some of the current parties are likely to lose. They’re now mandated for October 1st. That may cause trouble with the Sunni "Awakening Councils" which wanted provincial elections in March or April.
Anyways, the bad news is that there’s increasing reports of Sunni infighting. In addition, the de-de-Baathification law still seems highly dubious and no word on an oil proceeds law.
Recent Comments