Religious Representation In Iraq's parliament

Iraq Gives Religious Minorities Fewer Seats Than the U.N. Suggested -- The New York Times

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Executive Council ratified on Saturday a much-debated bill that gives Iraqi religious minorities fewer guaranteed seats on provincial councils than the United Nations mission in Iraq had recommended.

The Executive Council — President Jalal Talabani and the two vice presidents — agreed with Parliament that religious minorities, which include three-quarters of a million Christians, should be guaranteed just 6 of the 440 seats on the provincial councils, half what the United Nations had proposed.

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Iraq Approves Minority Quotas On Provincial Councils
-- L.A. Times

Christians and three other religious minorities are to get a total of six seats on three councils, half the 12 seats proposed by the U.N.


Reporting from Baghdad -- Iraqi leaders ratified a bill Saturday giving minorities a quota of seats on provincial governing councils, overriding protests by Christian lawmakers who said they had been cheated.

Christians had demanded that the country's three-member presidency council, which must ratify legislation passed by parliament, veto the bill.

Lawmakers on Monday approved the quota, which gives Christians and three other minorities a total of six reserved seats split among the governing councils in Baghdad, Nineveh and Basra provinces. The United Nations' special representative in Iraq had recommended 12 minority seats, a number Christian legislators had supported.

The three councils have a total of 129 members.

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