Advisor to the Prime Minister: A fresh approach to constitutional amendment

INA-  BAGHDAD


Hassan Al-Yasiri, the Prime Minister's advisor on Constitutional Affairs, unveiled a fresh and novel proposal for amending the constitution on Monday, steering clear of contentious political issues and pointing out that most political parties supported it.

As stated by Al-Yasiri to the Iraqi News Agency (INA), "The Iraqi way of thinking, whether at the political, parliamentary, or public opinion levels, differed and included changing many opinions and ideas." "Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani adopted the draft amendment to the constitution, especially since it was approved in 2005," Al-Yasiri said.

According to him, the constitution must be amended at a certain point because it was not written to last forever. He went on to say that two attempts to amend the it previously—the first, known as the Constitutional Review Committee, took place between 2006 and 2009 but was abandoned due to significant disagreements at the time.

"The second experience was in 2019 under the government of Adel Abdul Mahdi. The parliament and the presidency of the republic approved a draft amendment to the constitution, but after the protests, the amendments were not implemented and the project was halted for the second time," he continued.

He made clear that "what is on the table now is different from the previous two projects, as it includes different visions and prospects," ruling out "the idea of amending the articles of the constitution in full from the first article to Article 44."

"We must learn from past mistakes and emulate developed nations like the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Australia, Spain, and Canada, who have amended their constitutions partially rather than entirely," he said, adding that "there are crucial issues and changing them will result in a political conflict that needs to be avoided." 

"The amendment of the Constitution must be in accordance with the principle of gradation within stages, so that the texts that everyone agrees upon are amended on the need to amend them, such as Article 76 and the article on the selection of the President of the Republic; it is necessary to specify by an explicit text the meaning of the largest bloc and what is meant by the majority of the choice of the President of the Republic two-thirds what is meant by it, attendees or the total number, as well as the reformulation of some provisions of the Constitution, especially those that pertain to independent bodies and who are not affiliated with the ministry, as well as the re-consideration justice transitional institutions.”

"This vision is being presented to the Kurdish political bloc, and it was approved when it was presented to the leaders of the Sunni and Shiite political blocs," he said.