Iraqis show their independence as they demand vote on legislature

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/international.cfm?id=1330712003

SLOBODAN LEKIC IN BAGHDAD


THE head of the Iraqi Governing Council renewed his demand yesterday that a proposed transitional legislature should be elected by Iraqi voters, a move opposed by occupation officials who prefer that the new body be picked by regional caucuses.

"The assembly will be elected by the Iraqi people. This is what we are trying to achieve and that’s what, God willing, will happen," said Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, a Shiite Muslim politician who heads the council’s rotating presidency for December.

Mr al-Hakim, the leader of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a key Shiite political party, has insisted the legislature should be directly elected, rather than through the caucuses in Iraq’s 18 provinces as provided for in a 15 November agreement between the council and Paul Bremer, the chief US administrator. Under that agreement, the legislature will elect a transitional government with full sovereign powers by 1 July.

Iraqi voters would then elect members of a constituent assembly in elections that would be held by 15 March, 2005.
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[zx22778a]

1. God Forbid

We can't have democracy breaking out.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

2. Welcome to DU, z2!

That'd be terrible wouldn't it. They might ask us to get the hell out and take Halliburton with us.