After months of bargaining, the Iraqi parliament passed an election law on November 8.  Yesterday, Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi vetoed the law because it did not offer fair representation for the Kurds and Sunni, minority groups in the Shia-dominated country.  The veto comes the day after Kurdish officials threatened to boycott the election for similar reasons.

The veto raises three problems.  First, the bill must now go back to parliament.  While in theory Parliament could simply write a new bill to address these concerns or over-ride the veto, Hashimi’s veto and the Kurdish threat suggest this is not a mere procedural issue, but relates to long-standing ethnic tensions in the country.  Second, it sets the stage for a potential constitutional crisis.  On the one hand, Iraq’s Constitution states that election laws must be in place at least sixty days before the election.  On the other hand, the Constitution also states that the election must take place before the end of January, 72 days from today.  This gives the Iraqis 12 days to pass a new law and signs indicate that many parliamentarians are more interested in exploiting the problem than solving it.  Third, there appear to be legitimate concerns about the legality of the veto.

Reidar Visser at Iraq and Gulf Analysis, an excellent source of information about Iraqi politics, has much more detail.