Parliament speaker proposes solution for Kirkuk's controversial elections

Baghdad, (VOI) - Iraqi deputy parliament speaker on Sunday said he proposed a solution to resolve the stalemate dogging Kirkuk's provincial elections.

Khalid al-Attayah, the deputy parliament speaker, noted he "tabled a proposal to resolve the controversial local elections in Kirkuk by reaching a consensus between the three major ethnic groups: Arabs, Kurds, and Turkomans."

As Iraq's provincial elections are underway, calls have been raised to exclude Kirkuk from the elections for several technical and political reasons which led Kirkuk's parliamentarian crisis cell to initiate a proposal signed by 110 lawmakers calling to delay the provincial elections throughout Iraq.

"A solution to the issue of Kirkuk's provincial elections must be settled next week," Al-Attiya asserted.

Last May, for the first time, Negervan Barazzani, prime minister of the Kurdistan region, explicitly said that Kurds are ready to break a the lasting stalemate, raising hopes the potential time bomb of Iraq could be defused

Barazzani's remarks signaled the Kurds' willingness to compromise over the oil-rich province after longtime resistance to any settlement other than a popular referendum. Due to the Kurds' numbers having grown hugely in Kirkuk since the end of the 2003 war, Kurdish insistence on a referendum was interpreted by others as a desire to take over the city.

Under the Iraqi Constitution, a referendum was to be held in Kirkuk late last year in which people would have voted on whether the province would join the Kurdistan region, remain under Baghdad's jurisdiction, or be given special status as an independent region.

The referendum was not held, and the deadline was extended for another six months. It expires at the end of June, but it is highly unlikely to take place this month due to tremendous opposition from various Iraqi groups, neighboring countries and the U.S. Instead, the United Nations' special envoy to Iraq, Steffan de Mistura, has been tasked with seeking other possible solutions.

While the U.S. military and its Iraqi allies conduct operations to pacify the war-torn country, Kirkuk has long been flashing in the background as a likely point for the eruption of a civil war.