Iraq makes about-turn on Constitution voting rules

Mail & Guardian Online:

Under United Nations pressure, Iraq's Parliament on Wednesday reversed changes to an electoral law that critics had charged made it harder to reject the new and deeply divisive Constitution in next week's referendum. ... The latest change in voting rules came only three days after MPs altered them in a way that drew sharp criticism from the US and the UN as well as the increasingly alienated Sunni Arab minority. The political flap revolved around the terms under which the charter would be approved, and what could block its adoption. Wednesday's measure, approved by 119 of the 147 MPs present, places all voters on an equal footing. The Constitution will be approved if a simple majority of all those who turn out to vote say yes and if two-thirds of voters in at least three provinces do not say noGood!