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Draft Kurdish Constitution: Updated


The Kurdistan Regional Government has posted the text of the draft Kurdistan Region of Iraq constitution on its excellent website in Arabic and in Kurdish – English translation here.

There have been a number of previous drafts – most recently in October 2008 – English translation here.

Al-Sabaah, the Iraqi Government newspaper on 24 June 2009 reported that a spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government has stated that the Kurdistan Parliament will be asked to approve the draft constitution at its next meeting and if they approve it by a two thirds majority, they will ask IHEC to organise a referendum for 25 July 2009 to coincide with the Kurdish Parliamentary and Presidential elections.

Update: The Kurdistan Parliament did approve the draft constitution on June 26 2009 by 96 votes to 1 with 13 members absent but the referendum was postponed until after the Kurdish elections.

Al-Sabaah also reported that having approved last month the Provincial Council electoral law for the three Governorates of Dohuk, Erbil and Suleiymaniye in the Kurdistan region, the Kurdistan Parliament has now, as an amendment to that electoral law, approved a quota system for minorities for those elections as follows:
In Dohuk, 3 for the Assyrian Chaldean; 1 to the Armenians
In Erbil, 2 seats for Christian; 3 for the Turkomans
In Suleiymaniye, 1 seat for the Christians