Interpretation of the principles relating to vacant seats and replacement issues

Reidar Visser analyzed Today, however, personal votes are being used to disqualify a replacement candidate who was approved by parliament but had less votes than someone else from his kutla in the same governorate. According to the court, this has been done with reference to the revised electoral law being “most in conformity with the Iraqi constitution”. This interpretation by the court seems quite radical for a country with a strict civil-law tradition, since words such as “replacement” and “membership” don’t even occur in the electoral law, and since the replacement law which outlines criteria for governorate and kutla (but not personal vote) is still in force. In this way, the ruling seems to be of a rather innovative variety, similar perhaps to a previous ruling which decreed that “principles of democracy” dictated Iraq must change from the absolute remainder principle to the Sainte Lague method as basis for its electoral law. Given the politicized nature of the Iraqi judiciary, it makes sense to ask about possible political pressures behind this latest decision. What happened was that Adnan al-Zurfi, a Najaf politician who has been in and out of alliances with former PM Maliki over the past years, returned to his job as Najaf governor after having been elected MP, whereupon he promptly awarded his vacant seat to his own brother. The Iraqi supreme court is now clearly acting against the Zurfi family and its powerful Najaf governor. Whereas it is good to see the Iraqi supreme court apparently standing up against rampant cronyism in the country’s political life, the parameters of this latest ruling are sufficiently detached from actual legal texts that it raises questions about the court’s professionalism and overall and orientation.

Add a comment to this post: http://gulfanalysis.wordpress.com/2014/12/16/groundbreaking-supreme-court-ruling-on-the-law-on-mp-replacement/#respond =========== Suicide bomb, gunfight at Afghan bank, civilians inside- witnesses 5 attackers killed, fighting ongoing with Afghan security forces in Helmand, Afghanistan, bank attack Wed, Dec 17 02:54 AM EST LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Suspected Taliban militants detonated a suicide bomb then stormed a bank branch in the southern Afghan province of Helmand on Wednesday, engaging in a firefight with security forces while an unknown number of civilians were inside, police said. A Reuters witness at the scene heard the blast and the gunfire. Employees who escaped said that when the attack happened, the bank was busy with government workers who had come to collect their salaries. "According to our information, there were four Taliban, one of them detonated his explosives and three are fighting with security forces," said Farid Ahmad Obaid, spokesman for Helmand's police chief. (Reporting by Mohammad Stanekzai and Mirwais Harooni; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel) ===============================