Shiites Delay Signing of New Iraqi Constitution

Five Shiite Muslim members of the Iraqi Governing Council balked at signing Iraq’s interim constitution Friday, causing the embarrassing last-minute cancellation of a ceremony meant to mark a momentous step toward democracy and human rights in a country that has known neither.

The failure to go through with the much-anticipated signing was the latest setback for the U.S.-led coalition and its administrator, L. Paul Bremer III, and cast a spotlight on the difficulties of finding common ground among Iraq’s main religious and ethnic groups -- the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds -- as the nation prepares for a restoration of sovereignty this summer.

Bremer had overseen the tortuous and painstaking negotiations that appeared to reach fruition Monday, when the 25-member council announced that it had reached agreement. The apparent deal came after a night of give-and-take on a document that included compromises on the roles of Islam and women in Iraqi society and the level of self-rule for the Kurdish minority.

Coalition officials Friday emphasized that they believed the postponement was only temporary.

A statement issued on behalf of the Governing Council said that there remained “widespread consensus” on the document but a “constructive dialogue” was taking place “regarding an important sensitive issue.”

“Since in the new democratic Iraq there are valuable opportunities to exchange views to reach agreement in a democratic climate,” it said, the council decided to adjourn for two days to finish discussion of the unspecified issue. The statement added that the council would reconvene Monday to complete and sign the document.

A spokesman for the main Shiite party said the Governing Council members objected after Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, a senior Shiite cleric, expressed concerns about the document. Sistani has sought to ensure that Shiites have political power commensurate with their majority status.

The signing had been postponed earlier in the week for a period of mourning after at least 181 people were killed in multiple suicide bombings in Baghdad and Karbala that targeted Shiite worshipers during their holiest holiday period.

A stage was set up Friday in the Baghdad Convention Center under a banner extolling the unity of the nation. Musicians stood at the ready, and several international news networks were to provide live coverage of the ratification of a document that Bremer called “remarkable and revolutionary.”

But after a 45-minute delay, a Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman said there were difficulties in rounding up all 25 members of the council, and the ceremony was postponed.

In the ensuing hours, it became clear that the problem was not logistical so much as conceptual -- five of the 13 Shiites on the council were unwilling to sign the draft they had agreed to after Sistani let it be known through aides that he believed it contained too many concessions to the Kurds and Sunnis.

An aide to independent Governing Council member Mahmoud Othman described a scene at council headquarters -- a short distance from the convention center -- in which the 20 members who intended to sign the document sat apart from the five holdouts.

Later, Dan Senor, a coalition spokesman, said a “heated but civil” discussion was taking place among the council members.

Bremer was said to be livid. At the convention center, 25 neatly arranged fountain pens rested on a table, unused.

The holdouts “are coming up with various conditions and demands,” said Othman’s aide, who asked not to be named. “The latest is that it should not be passed by the Iraqis at all but only signed into a law by Bremer. They have been dancing around it since 1 o’clock in the afternoon.” He and Senor said the objections were not raised until Friday. The document, which had a Feb. 28 deadline under the timetable for restoring Iraqi sovereignty by June 30, had been announced as fully approved early Monday. On Thursday, a coalition spokesman said the only disagreements were about translation and punctuation.

Hamid Bayati, spokesman for the main Shiite party, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, said Friday that Sistani had raised objections to two clauses in the draft.

Instead of creating a president and two deputy presidents to lead the country, Sistani wanted a five-person presidency in which Shiites would be guaranteed three places to reflect their numbers in the population. Also, Sistani opposed a clause that would allow a two-thirds majority of voters in any three provinces to veto the final form of the constitution to be adopted later, Bayati said.

“Some of these provinces have only 400,000 or 500,000 people,” Bayati said, according to Associated Press. “We cannot have that number of people rejecting a constitution for 25 million people.”

The holdouts to the signing, a council source said, were prominent Shiites leaders, including the leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Abdelaziz Hakim; the leader of the Dawa Party, Ibrahim Jafari; Ahmad Chalabi, the head of the Iraqi National Congress, who has close ties to the Pentagon; and the council’s current president, Seyyid Mohammed Bahr Uloom. The fifth holdout was Mouwafak Rabii, a physician considered close to the Dawa Party.

On Monday, Rabii told reporters, “Today, a new Iraq was born.” Two days earlier, he had said, “We started to learn a new trade, and it’s called compromise.”

Looking flustered Friday at the convention center, council spokesman Hamid Kifai said of the snag: “It is technicalities, just some technicalities. They will be sorted out.”

But Othman’s spokesman said he was not certain the obstacles would be easily overcome. “At the moment, it is all up in the air,” he said late Friday. “It is a matter of who blinks first.”

Bremer had been effusive in praising the council for reaching agreement.

“It contains the kinds of protections that Americans take for granted: freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom to demonstrate, protection for people who are innocent until proven guilty,” he said in an interview with Fox television network. “The rule of law is firmly protected in this document.”

On the street, reaction from ordinary Iraqis was more mixed.

“The constitution is a hoax,” said Lt. Hamid Shaklar, an officer with the Iraqi police, as he stood directing traffic on a Baghdad street.

“Freedom means working together in harmony, but Iraqis don’t know how to do that. There are too many groups in Iraq. I predict this will end in chaos.”

Times staff writer Mark Magnier contributed to this report.