ASIA/IRAQ - Chaldean Patriarch calls for the protection of seats reserved for minorities in the Provincial Councils

Monday, 1 July 2019 middle east   oriental churches   area crisis   elections   religious minorities   ethnic minorities  

ankawa.com

Baghdad (Agenzia Fides) - Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael Sako calls on the Iraqi Parliament to find systems that also protect the quota of seats reserved for Christians and other minority ethnic-religious groups in provincial councils. The Patriarch's request is contained in a letter he sent to the President of Parliament, the Sunni Mohammed Halbusi, and to the Vice-representatives Hassan Lkaabi and Bashir Al-Haddad. "In the coming days", the Patriarch's letter reads, spread by the official channels of the Chaldean patriarchate, "the House of Representatives intends to enact a law that modifies the legislative provisions on provincial elections. In accordance with Article 49 of the Constitution - the letter continues - the law also guarantees places reserved for the Christian component in the provincial councils of seven governorates, but because of the legal flaw that allows all voters to vote for quota seats reserved for minorities, the will of the Christian component in the election of its legitimate representatives is always confiscated by the dominant political forces, as occurred in the previous elections". In order to preserve the right of the Christian component in the election of its legal representatives, the Patriarch calls for the implementation of ad hoc legal enactments already prepared and ratified by the Parliament itself.
It is not the first time that Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako, Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, offers his critical contribution to exhort the political-institutional system to favor the civil rebirth of Iraq, making it emerge from the spiral of conflicts and sectarianism that has threatened national unity for a long time. (PR) (Agenzia Fides, 1/7/2019)


Share: