Baghdad, March 26 (IANS) Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki warned Wednesday of delaying the April 30 parliamentary elections after electoral commission members quit over political interference.
"After all the members of the commission presented their resignations, the electoral process is in danger, and the whole political process is in danger," Maliki said in his weekly televised speech.
"We are afraid that the elections could be delayed, but according to the constitution, there is no party that has the right to delay the elections. We will enter a tunnel we might not be able to get out of," he said.
Maliki noted that parliament should not issue decisions and orders, but only legislations and amendments.
He said that such decisions must be presented by the Council of Ministers, then to be discussed by the parliament after which there should be a vote on it. Only then the commission will be obliged to apply it, Xinhua reported.
Maliki also called requsted the commission's chiefs to withdraw their resignations, and called on the parliament to amend the elections law as soon as possible according to legal procedures.
On Tuesday, the nine-member board of the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission presented their resignations collectively to protest continuing pressure on their work pushed by the conflict of political parties.
A statement by the commission said that great pressure has been put on the commission by the dispute between the legislative parliament and the judiciary as both issued conflicting decisions to interpret articles from the election law related to conditions of banning candidates from participating in the April 30 parliamentary elections.
The commissioners said they took the decision of resignation because they did not want to be part of such a conflict and to preserve the independence of the commission.
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