BAGHDAD — Iraqi lawmakers overcame months of infighting to pass legislation Wednesday setting the stage for provincial elections by early next year, an achievement sought by the United States to correct lopsided power structures blamed for sectarian violence.
As legislators overwhelmingly approved the bill, assailants armed with grenade launchers and machine guns ambushed an Iraqi police patrol north of Baghdad, killing 14 policemen and eight U.S.-allied paramilitary fighters, according to the U.S. military. The brazen ambush was a sign of the challenges ahead as Sunni Arab insurgents loyal to group Al Qaeda in Iraq try to derail political and security gains.
Passage of the election bill gained urgency as Washington sought to reduce its troop presence in Iraq and as Prime Minister Nouri Maliki became more assertive in cementing his government's sovereignty. Redrawing the political landscape is considered key to a functioning democracy in Iraq in which Shiite Muslims, Sunni Arabs, Kurds, Christians and other minorities share power. Sunni Arabs in particular have been underrepresented in political institutions because of their boycott of the last election in 2005.
In Washington, President Bush lauded the passage of the provincial elections bill, which still requires the Iraqi Presidency Council's approval.
"Nothing is more central to a functioning democracy than free and fair elections," Bush said. "Today's action demonstrates the ability of Iraq's leaders to work together for the good of the Iraqi people and represents further progress on political reconciliation."
The bill's passage came with some major hurdles attached, at least one of which was described as a "very dark" cloud by the United Nations' special representative, Staffan de Mistura.
That issue involves the northern city of Kirkuk, which Kurdish leaders want as part of the semiautonomous Kurdistan region. The city's Sunni Arab and Turkmen populations oppose the idea. All the groups had feared that holding provincial elections now in Tamim, whose capital is Kirkuk, would deny them the power they seek in the oil-rich region, so the decision was made to postpone voting there.
"In every great day there is a cloud," De Mistura said of the postponement. "It is very dark. It is the issue of minorities. This is a sensitive issue."
But the parliament speaker, Mahmoud Mashadani, said the fact that lawmakers didn't let the Kirkuk dispute derail the bill should be lauded.
