Oct 21, 2009, 14:04 GMT
Baghdad - Iraq's parliament on Wednesday postponed until Sunday an additional session on a law covering the conduct of elections scheduled for January.
The move, announced by lawmaker Baha al-Araji at a Baghdad press conference, came after lawmakers twice failed to agree on how to deal with the contested northern city of Kirkuk.
'The delay in reaching an agreement is a loss for everyone,' Speaker of the parliament Iyad al-Samarrai said before the decision was announced. 'No one benefits from the status quo.'
Iraq's Political Council for National Security will try to arrive at a compromise solution to present to the parliament before Sunday, al-Samarrai said.
The council is made up of President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's two vice presidents and other political leaders from various ethnic and religious backgrounds.
'We finished 90 per cent of the law. We have overcome many obstacles along the way,' al-Samarrai said later in the day.
'Now we need the political leadership in the country to take responsibility for solving the issue of Kirkuk,' he said.
'We will suggest that the council adds other figures to attend a panel discussion on the electoral law, in order to reach a political solution and a formula that will satisfy everyone,' he added.
Many Iraqi Kurds hope to make Kirkuk the capital of a future independent state. Arab Iraqi politicians, allied with the city's sizeable Turkman minority, regard Kirkuk and its nearby oilfields as an integral part of Iraq.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has called the dispute the most serious problem facing Iraq today. Kurdish President Massoud Barzani has warned the dispute could trigger a civil war if not solved peacefully.
A vote on the electoral law had been expected earlier this week but lawmakers failed to agree on a formula for conducting voting in the oil-rich city. A follow-up session on Tuesday was again postponed when not enough members of parliament turned up for a vote.
Also to be decided in the debate over the law is whether voters will choose between individuals, in an 'open-list' vote, or for parties, in a 'closed-list' vote.
Iraqi political parties have been seeking a consensus solution to both debates. Failing that, the law will come to a majority vote to allow the elections to take place on time.
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