Constitution of Iraq
The Iraqi Constitution of 2005 was adopted on 15 October 2005 by referendum. It replaced the previous interim constitution. After some delays made necessary by recounts in the Sunni province of Ninawa it was officially adopted by 78%.
The Commission, which drew up the Constitution, often faced seemingly impossible decisions. For in the Commission were the representatives of the Sunnis few times before retire. That would have meant that the Sunni Iraqis who voted in the negative, and so the Constitution would not have been accepted. Finally, at the end took only three of the eighteen Sunni representatives attended the signing ceremony; not signed the draft constitution. On 28 August 2005, the draft was still presented and adopted the Parliament.
Constitutional Referendum
Confusing not only for Iraqis, the dispute over the counting in the Sunni province of Ninawa appears. The governor of the province had reported the official result of the count in his province to Baghdad: it said, " that the draft for a new constitution had been there rejected by a large majority of voters and is therefore also a total failure ." The Electoral Commission in Baghdad denied, however. Their spokesman, Farid Ajar, the waiting journalists said: "We Awaiting earnings before and no one but the Independent Electoral Commission has the right to publish results. " The publication was postponed because there were " problems in the counting ." Condoleezza Rice later explained that the Constitution was " likely to be adopted "; going it alone, which provided at official points of displeasure. The issue disappeared momentarily completely from the media reports.
After the meantime, there was doubt whether the constitution had not been condemned and rejected by three provinces, reported on 25 October 2005, the news agencies that the draft constitution had been approved; in the province of Ninawa had 55 % of voters rejected the Constitution, but that misses the two-thirds majority, which would have made their province for a decisive factor of the ultimate rejection. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote: "The recount in Nineveh nevertheless confirmed the doubts about the originally announced for this province finding that the Constitution had been adopted there by 78 percent of voters ".
The type of coverage and the circumstances of Nachauszählung have a voter fraud seem possible. Saleh al - Mutlaq, a Sunni negotiators, the BBC said opposite a "farce". George W. Bush, however, praised the result and evaluated it as a new proof that " the Iraqis build a democracy, united against extremism and violence."
Content
Preamble
Chapter One: Basic Principles
The main points are:
- Iraq is a sovereign nation and its form of government is democratic, federal and representative.
- Islam is the state religion and a basis for legislation. No law can be passed that violates the rules of Islam and its legal system.
- No law can be passed that violates the principles of democracy. (Freedom of religion should be granted )
- The state is a multi-ethnic nation, and has as state languages Arabic and Kurdish. In addition, other languages such as Turkmen, Syriac and Aramaic can be taught as an official language in the various regions.
- Prohibited terrorism, ethnic cleansing and the Baath Party
- Iraq is part of the Arab-Islamic world.
- The state has an army that is under civilian command.
Chapter Two: Rights and Freedoms
Every Iraqi has the right to freedom of religion, education, health care, personal freedom, rule of law and freedom of movement.
Chapter Three: The federal authorities
This chapter is divided into four parts, namely:
- Legislature
- Executive
- Judiciary
- Independent institutions
Chapter Four: Rights of the federal authorities
The federal government has exclusive rights in the areas of:
- Foreign Policy
- Defence Policy
- Finances
- Postal services, radio, standards
- Budget
- Water and oil policy
- Welfare programs
In addition, the other rights with the regional governments will together determine how the electricity market, environmental policy, health care and education.
Chapter Five
This chapter describes the duties and rights of the autonomous regional governments. Either every single province are considered to be autonomous or more provinces join together to form a region. Serve with a two-thirds majority of the provincial government or a tenth of the population in the affected provinces. Currently there is only the Kurdish Autonomous Region. The plan is a Shiite region in southern Iraq, which is to consist of three provinces.
Others
Were in the public eye rarely discussed the newly created rights of foreign capital investors. During the Baath regime in 1972, for example, nationalized the oil wealth of the country and had prescribed majorities of Iraqi oil companies, the new Iraqi constitution now allows - as well as the previously issued by USA transitional constitution, foreign investors, 100 % of companies in this key industry to acquire.