Ethnic rivalries sink election bill in Iraq

BAGHDAD — Iraqi lawmakers failed Wednesday to agree on a provincial election law and adjourned for the month, casting doubt whether U.S.-backed balloting can be held this year in the country's 18 provinces.

Parliament did manage to sign off on a $21 billion supplemental budget, a move the Iraqis hope will ease U.S. congressional criticism that they aren't paying their fair share of Iraq's reconstruction at a time of economic hardship in the United States.

But the inability to approve the election bill dealt a setback to U.S. hopes for reconciliation among Iraq's rival communities despite the decline in violence.

President Bush had telephoned Iraqi leaders several times over the past week urging them to reach agreement so elections could proceed by the end of the year.

The bill failed because Kurds, Arabs and Turkomen were unable to come to terms on a power-sharing deal for the multiethnic region around the city of Kirkuk, the center of Iraq's northern oil fields.

Kurds consider Kirkuk their ancestral capital and want to incorporate it into their self-ruled region in the north. Most Arabs and Turkomen want Kirkuk to remain under central government control.

Following a Kurdish walkout, parliament approved an elections bill last month that would have established an ethnic quota system on the 41-member Kirkuk area provincial council and reduced the role of Kurdish security forces there.

President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, vetoed the measure as unconstitutional and sent it back to parliament, which convened a special session starting last Sunday.

Since then, Iraqi lawmakers had been locked in intensive negotiations. When compromise appeared impossible, parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani announced Wednesday that lawmakers would break for summer recess and then resume sessions on Sept. 9.

A committee will continue negotiations over the bill during the recess, he added.

Deputy parliamentary speaker Khalid al-Attiyah insisted the provincial elections could be held this year so long as the legislation is passed in September. But U.N. spokesman Said Arikat warned the delay would make "difficult for us to hold the elections this year."

During the negotiations, the U.N. had proposed a compromise in which the Kirkuk vote would be postponed to allow elections to be held in Iraq's 17 other provinces.

But the proposal also included a reference to a constitutionally mandated referendum on the status of Kirkuk — which the Kurds have long demanded.

That drew opposition from Turkomen and Sunni Arabs.