22 July 2008

The Speaker of the Iraqi Council of Representatives has committed an unconstitutional act by violating the manifesto of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, when today he organized a secret vote in the Council. This is a blatant violation of the Council's internal regulations and is a coup against the Iraqi constitution and the consensus political system prevalent in Iraq since the overthrow of the former regime in 2003.

The Speaker of the Iraqi Council of Representatives disregarded the Council and the existing agreements between the political factions by arranging a secret vote on an article specific to the Kirkuk governorate in the draft law of the provincial council elections. This is at a time when the political factions in the Council had agreed to a much more suitable arrangement for the draft law.

We reject this unexpected action by the Speaker of the Council and others behind it. We also declare that the Kurdistan Region will not abide by this unconstitutional process.

We are utterly concerned about this action; if others are in favour of this plan, we will reconsider our position and even our alliances. Our people will not tolerate these unconstitutional actions which are incompatible with political consensus.

We call on the Iraqi Council of Representatives, the Iraqi President and the Iraqi Presidency Council to oppose this suspect scheme which is against the interests of Iraq . We believe the goal of this scheme is to hinder the new democratic process in Iraq , to hamper the provincial council elections, and to obstruct the whole political process in Iraq .

We are confident that loyal and patriotic people from all political factions are paying close attention to this irresponsible action.