Kurdish premier backs minority rights

ERBIL, Iraq, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani Friday expressed his support for minority representation in the upcoming Iraqi provincial elections.

Iraqi lawmakers in September passed a measure that paved the way for provincial elections in early 2009. The law passed without an earlier provision, Article 50, which proportioned a number of seats to minority religious groups in the country.

Barzani stressed the importance of providing minority groups with a voice in the elections as a way to ensure national reconciliation, the Kurdistan Regional Government said in a press statement.

"The guarantee and protection of minority rights is a moral conviction we share with the international community, and should be the standard for all of Iraq," Barzani said.

Several Iraqi lawmakers, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, have called for minority representation, and Barzani praised a decision by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to ask lawmakers to consider the matter in separate legislation.

"The provincial elections law and all Iraqi laws should strongly reflect, and never contradict, this essential element of democracy, " said the Kurdish premier.