Kirkuk status looms over Iraqi elections

ERBIL, Iraq, June 26 (UPI) -- Iraqi parliamentary speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani said Thursday the status of Kirkuk needed to be settled to avoid delaying the fall provincial elections.

Iraq is scheduled to hold provincial elections Oct. 1, but disputes among ethnic Arabs, Kurds and Turkomen over the northern city of Kirkuk threaten that date.

Kurdish officials oppose a measure calling for the division of Kirkuk into four electoral districts along sectarian lines, saying the move threatens regional solidarity, The Kurdish Globe reports.

The Kurds also say any move to hold elections cannot be considered until all elements of constitutional Article 140, a measure reversing the Saddam-era policy of "Arabization" of the region, are upheld.

Mashhadani in a statement "demanded all parliamentary blocks either all agree to hold the election or postpone it."

British diplomat and adviser to the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad Thomas Krajiski said U.S. officials and the United Nations are working toward a resolution on the Kirkuk issue in order for the elections to take place.

"We support holding elections in Kirkuk on schedule, and we do not want them postponed, because the city of Kirkuk is important to all Iraqis and neighboring countries and nations of the world," he said.

The Kurdistan Regional Government, however, described such a move as interference, calling it largely a matter for the Iraqi people to settle.