Change Bloc: the approval of the election law is facing great difficulties

Shafaq News / MP of the Kurdish Change bloc, Ghaleb Muhammad, said today, Tuesday, that the approval of the election law is facing great difficulties, including the political differences between the parliamentary blocs and the Federal Court law.

Muhammad told Shafaq News agency, "The current election law is one of the most difficult laws in the Parliament, and represents a major challenge", stressing that, "the law cannot be approved without a complete political agreement between the parliamentary blocs".

Muhammad indicated that, "the most prominent differences in the election law are the mechanisms of distributing the electoral districts, and the failure to approve the Federal Court law, in addition to the difficulty of holding Parliament sessions in the current period due to COVID-19".

The Iraqi Council of Representatives had passed part of a new election law late last year under unprecedented pressure from popular protests.

However, the differences prevented the completion of the legislation of the law, as the disagreements center around the adoption of multiple districts or one constituency in each governorate, as well as the method of voting directly or through lists.

Article 15 of the new draft election law stipulates that "electoral districts are to be divided based on one electoral district for each district in the governorate."

While Article 49 of the Iraqi constitution stipulates that, "the council of Representatives consists of several members at the rate of one seat for every 100,000 Iraqi citizens".