Iraqi Council Misses Deadline for Constitution

The Iraqi Governing Council, deeply divided over the role of religion in a future government and other core issues, worked late into the night Saturday but failed to meet its deadline to approve an interim constitution.

Some council members voiced strong optimism that differences could be overcome, but others said the group remained deeply split on key issues. “We started to learn a new trade, and it’s called compromise,” said Mouwafak Rabii, an independent Shiite Muslim member of the council.

The divisions within the U.S.-appointed council underscore the complexities of establishing a constitution that will satisfy Iraq’s different religious and ethnic groups sufficiently to deter widespread violence, observers said. Unless minorities are convinced that the new constitution protects them, civil war remains a possibility.

Many council members said they expect those differences to become more pronounced as decisions take on greater permanence. Under a Nov. 15 agreement with the U.S.-led coalition, the council had been required to draft the interim constitution by Saturday as part of a timetable for restoring Iraqi sovereignty by June 30. That constitution is intended to guide the nation for the next 10 months and form the basis of a permanent constitution to be written next year.

As an insurgency continues to take lives and thwart progress, the shape of the caretaker government scheduled to take power this summer remains murky. And a date for elections has yet to be set.

In Washington, a senior U.S. official downplayed the Iraqis’ failure to meet the constitution deadline. “Nobody was ever counting on having it finished by Feb. 28.... It’s not too surprising, frankly.” He said the effort to work out the needed legal structure won’t be hurt “if it takes an extra couple of days.”

The council members remain divided on the issues of Islam’s role in Iraq’s laws, the authorities of independent militias and quotas for women serving in the legislature, a senior coalition official said.

The debate over the interim constitution took on added significance Friday, when at least eight Shiite members walked out of a meeting after the council voted 15 to 10 to repeal a proposal that recognized Islamic law in Iraq’s legal codes. Council members spent most of Saturday in small meetings, with many of the groups divided along religious and ethnic lines, said a senior coalition official who observed the process. The eight dissenters met as a group, but then joined other council members in discussions.

U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer III joined council members at one point, said Mahmoud Othman, an independent member of the council. The final interim constitution requires the approval of Bremer, who has indicated that he would veto any provisions enshrining Islam as a main source of law.

By late evening, at least three council members said they were optimistic, although they were unwilling to say when the document would be completed.

“We are working very hard to hammer out the final details,” said Samir Shakir Mahmoud, an independent council member. “We are determined this historic opportunity will be seized.”

Others, however, voiced skepticism earlier in the day.

“There are now two governing councils -- a big council and a small council -- and they aren’t really talking,” Othman said. “There is basic disagreement about some agendas that will not be resolved.”

Senior coalition officials refused to speculate on what might occur if the constitution was not completed. Council members have said that if agreement cannot be achieved on key points, those issues may be deferred to the permanent constitution.

Although an interim government is scheduled to take control by June 30, how that government will be chosen remains undecided.

Also unclear is when Iraq, a nation beset by violence and lacking an electoral infrastructure, will be ready to hold free elections -- a goal that all major groups embrace, although they differ on timetables.

Leaders of the Shiite population -- 60% of Iraqis -- have insisted that elections be held by the end of the year. Others say that is impossible. A U.S.-backed United Nations team is expected to work with Iraqis to help determine how and when elections can be held.

Meanwhile, authorities say some kind of interim constitution is essential to ensure that fundamental rights are respected and the nation does not fall into further disarray.

Senior coalition officials said that the council had resolved many of the more than 50 issues that would be addressed in the interim constitution but that many of the divisive issues had been put off for later discussions.

One of those issues is the role of Islam in the nation’s laws. In December, the council approved a measure requiring Muslims to submit to Islamic laws in adjudicating divorce, inheritance and other family issues. The proposal was repealed Friday and the issue unresolved, a senior coalition official said.

Contentious issues that appear to be partially resolved include the authority extended to the Kurdish populations in northern Iraq who enjoyed semiautonomy in the 1990s. The interim constitution “refers to the Kurdistan regional government as a legitimate authority over affairs in the Kurdistan region,” Rabii said.

Council members refused to say, however, whether Kurds would retain sole control over the peshmerga security force that has defended the region for the last 40 years, or how revenue from Kurdistan’s valuable oilfields would be distributed.

There has also been no resolution on how many legislative seats will be set aside for women. Female council members have demanded a quota of 40%; other members say 25% is sufficient.

“In a country with sectarian identities, setting precedents with quotas may lead to broader problems,” the senior coalition official said.

The political environment is rapidly shifting as council members seek to establish coalitions and test the limits of their power through demands and protests.

Some observers said Friday night’s vote shook Shiite council members who have cited the Shiite majority in arguing that their demands deserve attention.

“They lost a vote last night that was important to them by a large margin,” said a close observer of the council who spoke on condition of anonymity. “There is a divide between those who want a secular Iraq and those who want an Islamic republic. Yesterday, the Islamicists lost.”

A representative affiliated with the council members who walked out of the meeting, however, insisted that Shiites retain significant influence.

“We are the only organization in Iraq that manages to get millions of people into the streets,” said Hamid Bayati, a spokesman for the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which occupies one seat on the 25-member council. “We will be listened to.”

Salama Khafaji, an independent Shiite member of the council, echoed those thoughts. “Shiites are the majority, and majorities win in a democracy,” Khafaji said.

Those sentiments, however, worry observers.

“Unless democracy presents a win-win situation, there is every reason to believe minority groups will turn to violence to protect themselves after they lose,” said Nat Kern, a Middle East specialist.

Even after sovereignty is returned to Iraqis, according to the current schedule, 100,000 U.S. troops will remain in Iraq to help ensure order as officials work to build up the ranks of Iraqi police officers, soldiers and other forces to counter the insurgent threat.

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Times staff writer Paul Richter in Washington contributed to this report.