The Governing Council is forming a Committee to Implement the Constitution Names of 3 Arab and 2 Kurdish Women Discussed as Possible Successors to Akila al-Hashimi

The transitional Governing Council in Iraq will be holding a meeting today to form a commission that will be entrusted with analyzing the recommendations presented by the committee in charge of instituting constitutional mechanisms. This committee ended its operations last week and presented its detailed report to the Council.

Yesterday, Dr. Fouad Ma'soum, Head of the Constitutional Committee, informed "ash-Sharq al-Awsat," newspaper that the Committee had agreed on the central element of any constitutional work, that is, the reliance on the principle "consensus" as basis for further elaborations. He added that "any constitution that is to be written needs to rely on the principles of consensus among the communitarian, religious, ideological and other elements of the people, because the constitution must not take into account one side without the other, and must incorporate the interests of all within the Iraqi mosaic."

Ma'soum said that the committee to be formed by the Council will be the one to decide the mechanisms that it considers best suited for Iraqi reality, "in accordance with present conditions of Iraq and the region as a whole, with strong emphasis on the future."

Ma'soum said that the Commission that he had been presiding was able to agree on three possible formulas for holding a constitutional conference and writing the constitution:

1. holding general elections for the constitutional conference after undertaking a general census with the help of specialized international agencies;
2. holding partial elections in the governorates, with each governorate choosing representatives in accordance with its population distribution, on the condition that reciprocity be used in choosing the voters so as to include religious figures, tribes, parties, ethnicities, religions and denominations and women.
3. choosing a group of specialists qualified in this domain, and entrusting them with writing a draft constitution that would be presented to the people for discussion and enrichment, in order to reach, through the draft, an acceptable version to be presented for referendum

One of the Kurdish representatives heading the Governing Council told "ash-Sharq al-Awsat" that the principle of federalism had been accepted by many for a future constitution, although the form or character of this federalism was yet to be decided and determined by the Iraqi people.

This source pointed out that the concept with most currency at the moment was the division of a single federal state into three regions (as was almost the case in Ottoman times, during which Iraq was made up of the states of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra.) The federalism now proposed would consist of the North, South and Middle region.

He clarified that those who call for this form of federalism take a step back from envisaging the division of Iraq, that is, the region of Kurdistan is incorporated in the Northern Region, within which the various Arab, Kurdish, Turkmen, Assyrian, and other ethnicities cohabitate, and which is made up of the governorates of Kirkuk, Mosul, Sulaimaniya, Erbil, and Dohuk.

On another note, one of the Council members refuted in a declaration to the correspondent of "ash-Sharq al Awsat," that the Council had chosen Rend al-Rahim to succeed in the Governing Council Akila al-Hashimi, who was killed last month. The source said that the name Rend al-Rahim has been put forth among a number, among them Safiya al-Souheil (the daughter of Sheikh Taleb al-Souheil who was killed by the intelligence services of the previous regime in Beirut) and Dr. Fawziya al-Attieh (residing in Iraq.)

The same source considered that the Kurdish elements made up of the main two independent parties believe that the empty seat needs to be filled by a representative of the Shi'a Kurds (Fayli Kurds) that constitute a fair percentage of Iraqi make-up. These focus on one of two personalities, Computer Specialist Azhar Abd el-Karim, whose 6 brothers and sisters were executed by the previous regime and Jurist Hadya 'Askar who studied law in Baghdad and completed her specialization in Sweden.