Iraqi parliament approves election law

Iraqi lawmakers have finally approved a revised election law, paving the way for a national vote in January 2010.

The long-delayed law was passed on Sunday with 141 of the 195 members present voting in favor of the document, the parliament’s vice president Khaled al-Attiya said on state television.

The vote on the bill — governing the country’s second national election since the 2003 US-led invasion — was delayed for several weeks over a number of disagreements among Iraqi lawmakers, including the format of the ballot papers and how the polls should be run in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

The deadlock ended after lawmakers agreed to announce ‘provisional election result’ in Kirkuk and other provinces where there is dispute over electoral rolls because of a high rise in respective Kurd and Arab populations, AFP reported.

Under the new election law, a technical committee will review the vote and in case of certain irregularities, the elections will be repeated in a year.

According to the Iraqi constitution, the elections must take place by the end of January and the electoral law has to be in place at least 90 days before voting.

Iraqi election organizers have repeatedly said that they need the three-month period to prepare for a vote, adding that any period less than that means that the polls may not meet international standards.