Iraq Election Law Stalls

The Huffington Post is reporting that the Iraqi Council of Representatives ended their session today without approving a new election law. According to the article, “the head of Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission, Faraj al-Haidari, earlier this week warned lawmakers that if they did not have an election deal passed by the end of the day Thursday, it would be impossible to carry out the election on January 16.”  The commission will meet later Thursday to decide how to proceed.

IraqPundit has written a piece discussing the sense in Iraq that all of Iraq’s neighbors, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Qatar, are meddling in Iraqi political affairs at the expense of “decent” candidates.  The Economist argues that despite all of this political backbiting Iraq is engaging in serious democracy and moving away from sectarianism.  The article explains that out of the six main electoral blocks, the “three that look most genuinely post-sectarian may well be the strongest.” The remaining three “sport fig-leaves of diversity but are tainted with past sectarian violence.”  The article goes on to analyze these new blocs and the shifting tensions within the country.