By Baghdadhope
At a meeting held yesterday to prepare the election for its renewal to be held, but for last minute changes, on May 19, the Kurdish parliament (KNA-Kurdistan National Assembly) determined that:
a. the same institution will change its name. Not more Kurdistan National Assembly but Iraq's Kurdistan Parliament or Parliament of Kurdistan of Iraq
b. the minimum age for being elected to parliament falls from 30 to 25 years
c. the share of seats reserved for women increases from 25 to 30%
d. the Turkoman and Christian minorities are reserved 5 seats each of the 111 total.
5 seats for Christians is not a piece of news. The Kurdish parliament elected in January 2005 already includes 5 Christians deputees. The question however is whether, with the election drawing on, this number will not fall.
Alive is still among Christians the memory of the curtailment of their political representation in the elections for provincial councils held on last January 31 when, of the 12 seats guaranteed to them up to July 2008, only 3 remained available (Baghdad , Basra and Mosul).
A curtailment that never had an official explanation but that is unanimously seen as the Arab desire to "slow down" a possible alliance of the elected Christians with the Kurds and the resulting political strengthening of the latter.
Christians then again, as always, between Arabs and Kurds.
It remains to be seen whether the inter-kurdish game for power will prevail over the political representation of the minority that the government always claimed to defend.