Elections in Iraq are a constitutional right

Head of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, Osama Najafi, has hit out at Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s plans to postpone local elections by six months, claiming that he has “no right” to make that decision.Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced the decision to postpone local elections in the aftermath of yesterday’s bombings in Baghdad, which killed more than 50 people and injured over 200. He said that the nation was “in turmoil” over the attacks and needed time to recover. Speaking to Arabstoday, Najafi explained that it is "the Iraqi people alone who decide when and how to vote, this is how democracy works. Citizens cannot be pushed to the polls like they used to be under dictatorial regimes and therefore elections can’t be postponed according to the government’s will.” He pointed out that “voting is a right guaranteed by the Iraqi constitution and neither Maliki nor any other government can deny the people that right.” He described the decision to postpone the ballot in the western city of Anbar and Nineveh as “tantamount to raping the will of the people.” “The Iraqi government is underestimating Iraqi blood and the will of the Iraqi’s by taking this bad decision,” he said. Najafi also claims that the government is using Iraq’s deteriorating security situation as a pretext to keep the “unpopular” Maliki and his cabinet in power. Najafi is not the only prominent figure to speak out against the decision to postpone elections. Iraq's Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr has blasted the government's decision, saying the move "entrenches dictatorship." In a handwritten statement released today, al-Sadr said Prime Minister al-Maliki has “wronged Iraq and Shiism” by signing an agreement to postpone the elections. He went on to describe Iraq as having "a government which is selling its southern territories short, a government without a president, in addition to a feeble parliament and a politicised judiciary.” “Keeping this in place will do more harm than good and it will also aid sinfulness and aggression,” added al-Sadr.