BAGHDAD (Rooters) -- Iraq will have time to hold provincial elections before the end of the year if parliament passes a new electoral law this month, the U.N. special representative to Baghdad said on Wednesday.Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said the polls, seen as crucial to national reconciliation, will be held on Oct 1. But legislators said last month there was little chance of getting the law passed soon enough to allow preparations for a vote by then.
'We can indeed have elections before the end of the year if parliament approves the electoral law before the end of July,' U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura told reporters after meeting Maliki. 'There is no reason for this electoral law not to be approved because most of the issues can be solved. We still have one month but it is a crucial month.'
Parliament is scheduled to take a summer recess in August.
The electoral commission has said it needs three months to prepare once the law has been passed. The United Nations is providing technical assistance to the commission.
Washington says the elections will promote reconciliation by boosting the participation of minority Sunni Arabs in politics. Sunni Arabs boycotted the last local polls in January 2005. Analysts say the elections will also be the battleground for a fierce power struggle among majority Shi'ites.
Lawmakers have said debate on the provincial elections law has bogged down over a dispute between Arab and Kurdish lawmakers over what to do about voting in the disputed oil rich city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq. Minority Kurds, who control the northern Kurdistan region, see Kirkuk as their ancient capital and want a constitutionally mandated referendum to be held to decide its status. Arabs encouraged to move there under Saddam Hussein want the city to stay under Baghdad and have been wary of a vote.
In a statement, Maliki said it was necessary to hold the elections on time. The issue of Kirkuk should not hinder the process, he said.
The separate referendum on Kirkuk's status was supposed to have been held before the end of 2007 but was delayed for six months because few preparations had been carried out. The latest deadline for the referendum has also elapsed.