Federal Court: Reducing the number of deputies need constitutional amendment




2018/04/05 (00:01 PM) - Number of readings: 588 - Issue (3894)


Baghdad / Range

The Federal Supreme Court announced on Monday that the reduction of seats in the House of Representatives and provincial councils need to "legislative intervention."

The court responded to several parliamentary questions about the proportion of representation and the possibility of limiting it to voters only in an attempt to reduce the number of seats in the federal and local legislative councils.

The political parties have made proposals to reform the electoral system in Iraq, including the narrowing of the House of Representatives and local councils.

The Federal Court said in a statement received yesterday that it had received a request for the interpretation of article (49) and its text (the House of Representatives consists of a number of members with one seat per hundred thousand people of Iraq and represent the entire Iraqi people), in view of Three questions raised by the General Secretariat of the House of Representatives. "

"The first question concerns the extent to which the legislator's intention is that the number (100) thousand belongs to the voters or the population in general." The court replied that "it found, through reference to the text of Article (49 / I) of the Constitution, the departure of the legislator's desire to identify the members of the House of Representatives proportion of one deputy representing one hundred thousand people of the Iraqi people, regardless of their personal status both in terms of age or from their positions Social and did not refer to the number of voters. "

The Federal Court continued that "the expression in the constitutional text (people) came at all and was not allocated to the number of voters and absolute is being launched."

On the second question about the possibility of reducing the seats of the House of Representatives in the absence of a census, the Court affirmed that "the increase of the population to the number of their representatives in the House of Representatives requires a legislative intervention to the text of Article (49 / I) of the Constitution in accordance with the contexts stipulated in Article (142) ) In a way that reduces the number of seats in the current Council. "

In response to the third question on the possibility of limiting the number of members of the provincial councils between (10 to 25) members, the Federal Court stressed the need to "refer to the provisions of the law of provincial elections, districts and districts No. (36) for the year 2008 that Article (24) Members of the Provincial Council (25) members with the additions contained therein. "

The court added in its decision that "if this number and its additions are to be changed between 10 and 25, this requires a legislative intervention to amend the text of Article (24) of the law according to the number mentioned in the question. The court found no text in the constitution that prevents the legislative amendment "He said.


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