Security stepped up for Iraq referendum
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-13 20:03

That was not enough, however, for many Sunni leaders.

"The added articles do not change anything and provide no guarantees," Muthana Harith al-Dhari, spokesman of the influential Association of Muslim Scholars, told Al-Jazeera television.

"We have called for boycotting the elections or rejecting the constitution," he said.

Still, the changes could split the Sunni vote enough to prevent them from defeating the draft constitution. The draft will be rejected if more than two thirds of the voters oppose it in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces, and Sunnis have the potential to do so in just four.

The charter's passage is a key goal of the United States, since failure would mean more months of political instability and would delay U.S. plans to start pulling troops out of Iraq.

Sunni Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer said the amendments meant Sunnis had to work harder in the December parliamentary elections to ensure a strong presence in the next parliament to try for future, deeper changes in the constitution.

They have only 17 members in the current 275-member parliament after largely boycotting Jan. 30 elections.

Iraq's top leaders, including the Kurdish president and Shiite prime minister, lined up on stage before the gathered lawmakers in parliament, lauding the deal as a show of unity between the country's often divided factions and communities.

The hour-long session, attended by 159 of parliament's 275 members — ended without the lawmakers voting on the amendments, but Parliament Speaker Hajim al-Hassani said no actual vote was necessary and that the compromise was approved.

Another significant amendment assures Sunni Arabs that they will not be purged in Iraq's De-Baathification program simply for belonging to Saddam's ousted Baath Party. Many current Sunni Arab political leaders were Baath members and insist only those who actually committed crimes should be prosecuted.