Iraqi elections face possible delay

BAGHDAD, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- A dispute between lawmakers and a vice president of Iraq threatens to derail plans to hold a parliamentary election on schedule in January, officials said.

Disregarding a veto by the vice president of measures it had already passed, the Iraqi parliament Monday passed new amendments the official immediately said he would also veto, The New York Times reported.

"Now we have only bad choices," Ahlam Asad, a Kurdish member of the Council of Representatives, said.

The council apparently lacks a three-fifths majority required to override a veto and several lawmakers said that would make it impossible to conduct constitutionally required elections in January, the Times said.

The timing of a planned withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq has been pegged to the January election, the newspaper said.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Washington she hoped the election would be conducted as scheduled but conceded it "might slip by some period of time until this is worked out," the Times said.

The amendments adopted Monday were pushed through by Kurdish and Shiite lawmakers despite objection by Sunni Arabs, who maintain they were disenfranchised in 2005 elections.

Dozens of Sunni lawmakers walked out on Monday's session of parliament in protest of the amendments, which provide a new formula for apportioning seats that have the effect of reducing Sunni representation in government, The Washington Post reported.