ELECTIONS UPDATE: KRG FUNDS TRANSFERRED, NEW

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 001402

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/28/2019
TAGS: PGOV KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: ELECTIONS UPDATE: KRG FUNDS TRANSFERRED, NEW
PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS LAW COMMITTEE

REF: A. BAGHDAD 1371

B. BAGHDAD 1370

Classified By: Deputy Political Counselor Steve Walker for reason 1.4 (
d).

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Summary
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1. (SBU) At long last, IHEC has received the almost $40
million in funding for the KRG elections it has been waiting
for for several weeks. With the funding now in hand,
preparations for the July 25 Iraqi Kurdish Parliament and
presidential elections are smoothly on track. Bloc leaders
in Parliament have decided to form an ad hoc committee to
develop political consensus on an election law, although it
is not clear whether the committee will amend the 2005
election law or draft a new law. Bloc leaders have also
decided that election day for the national elections will be
January 15 or 16 (although this must be agreed upon and
formally decreed by the Presidency Council). We also have
been told that the current Parliamentary session, scheduled
to end on June 30, will likely be extended though July. This
is all good news for the elections preparation timeline,
although critical steps remain. The most pressing now: IHEC
needs Parliament to authorize about $40 million in funding so
that it can begin preparations for the August 1-31 voter
registration update. End summary.

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KRG Elections: Money Received, On Track
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2. (SBU) UNAMI Chief Elections Officer Sandra Mitchell
informed us May 28 that the Independent High Electoral
Commission (IHEC) has finally received the $37.9 million
first tranche of KRG elections funding that Prime Minister
Maliki approved several weeks ago but whose disbursement got
snagged in the Iraqi bureaucracy (ref A). IHEC estimates
that the total cost of administering the KRG elections will
be $90 million.


3. (SBU) USG assistance for the KRG elections is ongoing.
The USAID-funded International Foundation for Electoral
Systems (IFES),which with UNAMI forms the International
Elections Assistance Team (IEAT),is working full time with
IHEC. Given the relatively stable security situation in the
three provinces that comprise the KRG, IHEC has made no
request for large-scale U.S. security assistance. MNF-I is
supporting IHEC efforts to train KRG Governorate Elections
Office (GEO) security managers and doing emergency
contingency planning. MNF-I's election support will be
limited to intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance
(ISR) overwatch of ballot material movements, MEDEVAC
(w/supporting Quick Reaction Force),and VIP airlift to
support UNAMI officials conducting elections-related
activities.


4. (SBU) Several DRL grantees are working to ensure there
is adequate voter education. The Institute for War and Peace
Reporting (IWPR) is conducting special journalism workshops
on election reporting and, in cooperation with local
partners, is developing radio and TV talk shows with
issues-based voter education. The International Republican
Institute (IRI) is working with local civil society partners
to produce and distribute voter education materials; American
University and the International Research and Exchanges Board
(IREX)also have public outreach programs with civil society
and the media. Both IRI and the National Democratic
Institute are working with a broad range of the political
entities that have registered on how to compete effectively
and build their get-out-the-vote capabilities. A Political
Section team visited Erbil May 27-28 inter alia to assess
IHEC's voter education activities.

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Q -------------- --------------
Elections Law: Political Consensus Building Has Begun
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5. (C) Tawafuq bloc leader Harith al-Obeidy, who replaced
Speaker Samara'ie as Tawafuq bloc leader, told Poloff May 27
that bloc leaders had met earlier that afternoon and decided
that election day will be January 15, this based on the
Higher Judicial Council ruling that elections must take place
by January 30, the Arba'een religious holiday in January, and
the need for a Friday (Iraq's day off),since schools are
used for polling stations. (Note: Iraqiyya MP Radwan
Kilidar, citing the same reasons, told Poloff on May 28 that
election day would be Saturday, January 16. End Note.)
Al-Obeidy said the committee had also agreed to establish an
ad hoc committee to address the election law, and that each

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bloc (approximately 10) had been asked to appoint a
representative. The committee will begin work May 30 or 31.


6. (C) Al-Obeidy said the ad hoc committee will focus on
amending the 2005 law because bloc leaders agree that
drafting a new law could introduce too many new issues and
problems. Poloff queried about which sections of the law
they were seeking to amend; al-Obeidy demurred that this was
a subject the committee would review and decide upon. He
noted that it may also consider the draft political party law
as it debates options for the election law. Poloff reminded
al-Obeidy of the importance of on-time elections and the need
for parliament to focus on an election law now. Finally,
al-Obeidy said that, probably beginning next week, parliament
will move to an increased work schedule (more days per week)
and that he thought it likely that the legislative session
would be extended through July. Interestingly, when Poloff
asked if the July 25 KRG elections would interfere with such
an extended session, given that Kurdish MPs would likely
return to the north, al-Obeidy appeared to be unaware of the
elections.


7. (C) Salim Jibouri, Tawafuq's spokesman and the Deputy
Chair of the Legal Committee, which has oversight of IHEC,
confirmed the formation of the ad hoc elections law committee
to the Director of the Political Section's Office of
Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Office (CLA) on May

28. (Note: CLA provides technical legal assistance to
Parliament and other Iraqi legislative stream entities. End
note.) Jibouri said that the committee would include bloc
representatives as well as some minority representatives, and
clearly stated that they would be drafting a new law, not
amending the 2005 law. He said that a framework was already
in place for a new law, and didn't think passage would take
much time. He cited electoral organization (will Iraq be a
single national electoral district or will each governorate
be an electoral district -- see para nine) and women's and
minorities representation as issues that need to be worked
out. He indicated that bloc leaders have not yet made a
definitive decision on the open list/closed list issue. CLA
Director, stressing the importance of maintaining the January
2010 elections timeline, told Jibburi that there was no need
for the committee to reinvent the wheel: either the 2005 law
or the 2008 provincial elections law provides a useful point
of departure for a new law. Jibouri enthusiastically
welcomed her offer of technical assistance, including a
CLA-drafted paper on the 05 law, amended 05 law, and new law
options.

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Parliamentary Elections Operational Update
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8. (SBU) IHEC Chairman Faraj Haydari delivered a letter to
Parliament's presidency council on May 27 notifying the
Speaker that IHEC must receive approximately $40 million by
June 1 in order to begin procurements and other preparation
for the national voter registration update, scheduled to run
the month of August. We will coordinate closely with the
IEAT on this.


9. (C) Like Jibbouri, Sandra Mitchell has also mentioned to
us that there is talk in Parliament about making Iraq for the
parliamentary elections a nation-wide single electoral
district. This would require an amendment to the 2005
election law. The 2005 stipulates that each of the country's
18 governorates are discrete electoral districts, with 230
of the 275 parliamentary seats proportionally allotted among
them based on the number of registered voters in each
Qthem based on the number of registered voters in each
governorate. Under the 2005 law, the remaining 45 seats were
designated as compensatory seats on a single national
constituency basis. Parliament's intent for this mechanism
was to ensure adequate proportional and smaller political
party -- and by extension, minority -- representation. It
didn't work; the larger parties got most of the compensatory
seats. Out-of-country votes in 2005 were counted towards the
45 compensatory seats.


10. (C) A single electoral district system could be
attractive to the Kurds, who likely would win more seats if
their aggregate population numbers counted nation-wide and
not just by governorate. Minorities reportedly also believe
they would do better under a single national constituency.
The downside of this system is that it reduces
accountability, especially if used with a closed list system.


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No "Interrogation" of IHEC Chair
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11. (C) Ref B reported that Parliament was planning to

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summon IHEC Chairman Faraj Haydari for questioning regarding
the administration of the January provincial elections.
Haydari told us he would appear for this "interrogation," but
was very concerned that the questioning would become a
raucous political show, with parties that fared poorly in the
provincial elections using the opportunity to beat up on
IHEC. He was particularly worried that public
second-guessing of the decisions of the independent Electoral
Judicial Panel that heard appeals to IHEC's electoral
complaint decisions could undermine IHEC's public
credibility, which could harm the public's perceptions of the
legitimacy of future elections. Mitchell told Deputy
Political Counselor May 28 that Parliament will not summon
Haydari for a plenary session questioning. Instead, IHEC's
Chief Electoral Officer Commissioner Judge Qasim al-Abodi and
several technical advisors will meet with the Legal Committee
on May 31 to discuss all aspects of the provincial elections.
It will then be up to the Legal Committee to advise the
Speaker if plenary session questioning is required. Mitchell
said it is IHEC's sense that the Legal Committee's discussion
session should satisfy Parliament. The IEAT is assisting
Commissioner al-Abodi with his presentation.

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Comment
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12. (C) The receipt of the first tranche of funding for the
KRG elections is good news. The delay between the
authorization and disbursement of government funds is a
chronic GOI bureaucratic problem. We predict that this will
not be the last time funding comes down to the wire. We will
work closely with UNAMI to facilitate timely disbursement of
the $40 million needed soon for the voter registration
update. The formation of an ad hoc committee to focus on the
election law is also good news: it means that the political
consensus building process has begun. It is interesting that
we got conflicting readouts (both from members of the Tawafuq
bloc) on whether the committee will seek to amend the 2005
law or pass a new law. We note that the PM's office has
expressed a desire for a new law, and interpret this to mean
that this issue remains undecided.


13. (C) Parliament's apparent decision to begin its
questioning of IHEC in the Legal Committee is also good news.
We have been heartened by Speaker Samara'i's energetic focus
on Parliamentary executive oversight, and have been watching
with interest the ongoing questioning of ministers and other
GOI officials. Referring the questioning to the Legal
Committee provides for parliamentary oversight while
avoiding, at least for now, a potentially humiliating plenary
questioning of IHEC. It also asserts the role of the Legal
Committee, which is charged with overseeing IHEC, and thus
reinforces proper procedure. Another silver lining in all of
this is that, as Mitchell noted to Deputy Political
Counselor, Haydari's engagement with bloc leaders was
instrumental in getting parliament to refer the IHEC
questioning to the Legal Committee. This is exactly the kind
of improved IHEC outreach to MPs and parliamentarians that we
have urged, and will continue to urge.
HILL