ELECTION LAW UPDATE: VP HASHIMI MULLS OVER IHEC

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 003034 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/16/2019 TAGS: PGOV KDEM IZ SUBJECT: ELECTION LAW UPDATE: VP HASHIMI MULLS OVER IHEC PROPOSAL REF: BAGHDAD 3011 BAGHDAD 00003034 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: Classified by Acting Political Minister-Counselor Yuri K im for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ZFR ZFR ZFR ZFR Please cancel BAGHDAD 3034 in its entirety. It is a duplicate of BAGHDAD 3033. ZFR ZFR ZFR ZFR Thanks and regards, BAGHDAD 00003034 002 OF 002 to Article 17 of the election law, which governs the method by which compensatory seats are allocated. Under this proposal, up to eight of the national compensatory seats would be filled exclusively by OCV votes. To prevent these seats from being determined by fewer voters than the other seats in COR, IHEC would divide the number of OCV ballots cast by the national average of votes per seat, subsequently allocating the OCV seats to parties proportionally. Any remaining compensatory seats would be distributed to small parties that received more votes than the national average, but not enough to get a district seat. ¶6. (C) The Ambassador pressed Speaker Samarraie, former PM Allawi, and VP Abd al-Mahdi to ensure that Hashimi understood the strength of U.S. support for avoiding a veto and holding credible, legitimate elections in January. Poloffs delivered the same message to key lawmakers and associates of Hashimi, including Saleh al-Mutlaq, Omar al-Jabouri, and Osama al-Najaifi. In a conversation with the Ambassador soon after the Legal Committee meeting ended, Sammaraie said he was working toward an arrangement in which Hashimi would sign the bill into law with reservations in exchange for assurances from Sammaraie that the COR will consider IHEC's proposal in the near future. UNAMI Deputy SRSG Andrew Gilmour told PolCouns that Hashimi had accepted Sammarai's offer and had ceased threatening to veto the bill. In an evening conversation with poloff, Hashimi's Director General, Krikor Der-Hagopian (see reftel) stated that the Vice President had received Sammaraie's letter outlining his options to either sign the law with assurances that he COR will attempt to allocate more weight to OCV ballots or veto the law. Der-Hagopian reported that Hashimi is considering signing the law, but has doubts that the COR will actually amend the law once he has signed. Hashimi requested a briefing, reportedly to take place this evening, in which IHEC will outline the solution presented to the Legal Committee. KURDS UNHAPPY WITH SEAT ALLOCATION -------------- ¶7. (C) On November 17, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Chief of Staff Fuad Hussein told PolOff that he was misquoted in the press and on a television crawler, that broadcasted that the KRG President's Office announced the Kurds will boycott the national parliamentary elections. Hussein clarified that KRG President Barzani does not believe that the food ration card system is an equitable way to distribute parliamentary seats. He cited Ninewa's gain of 13 seats, questioning how could there be an influx of 1.3 million people who have applied for ration cards since 2005. Hussein said that the KRG wants to ensure that the seat distribution will be reviewed. Otherwise, the Kurds would have to threaten to boycott. He intimated that the threat of a boycott maintains pressure for the seat distribution to be reviewed. HILL