The draft was read to the National Assembly today, though no vote was made among lawmakers, Mohammed Nayif, a spokesman for the chamber, said in a telephone interview from Baghdad.the constitutional drafting committee is apparently skipping public debate and going straight to what was supposed to be the step that came after a draft passed a vote of the full assembly. which raises my questions from the other day: what is the point of electing an iraqi assembly last january if they are not debating or voting on the constitution? only a select number of the delegates were members of the drafting committee, why bother with a whole assembly formed allegedly with the purpose of creating a constitution if most of its members are locked out of the drafting process? what was the january 30, 2005 election for?
and here's some more (questions, that is): why didn't they submit the draft to debate in the assembly? were they (whoever is calling the shots on this) afraid that the draft would be defeated if it was put to a debate and vote? or were they more afraid that it would be amended? whatever happened to democracy?
sure, it still has to pass a referendum. but the reason for skipping a step like this, risking the very legitimacy of the constitution itself, completely eludes me.
...for about the problems of having an illegal constitutional process, see the andrew arato guest editorial at informed comment
