BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq has enough time to hold provincial elections this year but only if the nation's lawmakers wrap up a controversial law in the next two weeks, an electoral commission official said Monday.
"It normally takes 128 days to organize the ballot but by making a huge effort we could get it done in 105 days," the commission member, who wished to remain anonymous, told AFP.
"It is therefore necessary that the law be adopted no later than September 15 for voting to take place before December 31."
Iraq, a nation of around 26 million, had been due to go to the polls on October 1 but the long-awaited legislation to govern the ballot has faced repeated delays over the political handling of the disputed northern oil province of Kirkuk.
Iraqi MPs failed to strike an agreement before the parliament took a summer recess from August 6 to September 9.
There are 17.3 million registered voters this year compared to 14.2 million in the last election held in 2005, the official said, adding that the list of registered voters was 96 percent accurate.
The Sunni provinces of Nineveh in the north and Anbar in the west, where some of the deadliest violence has occurred since the start of the 2003 US-led war, saw the greatest growth in voter registration, the official said.
In 2005, when Iraqis went to the polls to vote in provincial and general elections, the participation rate was 59 percent.
A postponement of the ballot this year would be a blow to Washington which sees the election as critical to consolidating Iraq's fledgling political process and reconciling its deeply divided ethnic groups.
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