Iraqi Kurds renew vote boycott threats

Iraqi Kurd leaders threaten to boycott the key national elections scheduled for January unless Kurdish areas receive more seats in the parliament.

The office of Kurdistan Regional President Massoud Barzani said the way seats were allocated to Kurds under the new election law was unfair.

"Unless this seat allocation formula is reconsidered in a just manner, the people of (the) Kurdistan Region will be compelled to boycott the election," said a statement posted on Barzani's website.

The statement came as Iraq's Sunni Arab Vice President Tareq al-Hashimi vetoed on Wednesday part of an election law over its failure to allocate any seats to the Iraqis living abroad.

Three northern provinces, represented by their own parliament as well as president, make up the autonomous Kurdish region, which borders Turkey.

Barzani's statement condemned the current division of seats as "an attempt to reduce the number of Kurdistan Region representatives in the next Iraqi parliament and diminish their achievements."

Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman echoed Barzani's demands and the threat of boycott and said, "If no changes are made on this matter, then we will not participate in the elections."

Al-Hashimi said he objected to Article One of the law approved by the parliament earlier this month because it did not give a voice to Iraqis living outside the country.

The Iraqi vice president's decision comes on the heels of the long-delayed passage of an electoral law for the January polls on November 8.

Any delay in the vote could in turn procrastinate US withdrawal from the country, a process scheduled to speed up following the election.

Source: PressTV.
Link: http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=111592§ionid=351020201.