Iraq’s Electoral Commission rejects Basra autonomy bid

Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission rejected a request demanding a referendum be held to recognise Basra as an autonomous region, saying the request did not complete the legal procedures, the Anadolu Agency reported.

In a statement issued yesterday, the Commission pointed out that it had received an official request from Basra city that included the signatures of 44,366 citizens; however the lists were missing the signatories’ identification numbers and ration card numbers.

The Commission added that 2,135 of the signatories’ names were repeated and 20,726 names did not match the registered voters’ lists while only 21,505 names were identical to the voters’ data.

According to the Commission, the matching signatories’ names represented only 1.2 per cent of the eligible voters’ lists which is less than the two per cent ratio demanded by Iraqi law to accept the request.

Wael Abdul Latif, who helped collect the signatures, told the Anadolu Agency that the request will be submitted again once the legal procedures were completed.

A member of the Iraqi Parliament, Muhammad Al-Tai, who supervised the collection of the signatures, said he submitted the request on 15 April.

Basra is Iraq’s second largest city and produces nearly 80 per cent of the country’s oil.