BAGHDAD — Iraq's parliament Monday approved quotas guaranteeing minorities a handful of seats on the governing bodies of Iraqi provinces, a move that helped pave the way to regional elections but angered Christians who had demanded greater representation.
In Baghdad, three bombings killed at least seven people, most of them at a busy square where twin blasts exploded seconds apart during morning rush hour. Another bomb north of the capital killed one person and contributed to a day of violence that underscored the ongoing tensions in Iraq even amid a period of relative tranquillity.
No date has been set for the provincial vote, but it is supposed to take place by Jan. 31 and has been heralded as key to rectifying lopsided power structures blamed for fueling sectarian violence. The minority quota formula approved by lawmakers would guarantee a total of six seats spread across three provincial councils to Christians and three smaller minority groups: Yazidis, Sabians and Shabaks.
Of the 150 lawmakers present, 106 voted for the plan. It sets aside one seat for Christian parties on the provincial councils of Baghdad, Nineveh and Basra. Sabians, a pacifist monotheistic sect, also will get one seat in Baghdad. Yazidis, another sect, and Shabaks, an ethnic minority, will each have one seat on the Nineveh council.
Like Christians, the other groups have claimed persecution under the Shiite Muslim-dominated Iraqi government and demanded special protection when parliament passed the law in September setting the stage for provincial elections. That law failed to include special considerations for minorities, prompting protests by Christian lawmakers and weeks of wrangling to come up with a solution acceptable to minorities and to the Shiite, Kurdish and Sunni Arab parties vying for dominance.
The quotas are less generous than those in two other proposals that would have granted a total of either eight or 12 seats to minority parties, and the choice illustrates the fears and distrust among lawmakers in heavily contested, ethnically mixed areas.
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Sunni Arab qualms
Nineveh, in northern Iraq, is particularly sensitive because of its mixed population of Sunni Arabs, ethnic Kurds, Christians and Yazidis.
Sunni Arabs had resisted setting aside large minority quotas on the 37-seat provincial council, fearful that minority groups might lean toward the Kurds and bolster Kurdish hopes of expanding their influence in the north. The 12-seat option rejected Monday would have set aside seven minority seats on the Nineveh council.
