The Presidency of the Republic reveals proposals for constitutional amendments

Baghdad - INA

 The Presidency of the Republic revealed proposals for constitutional amendments, while indicating that President Salih supports the steps of Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhmi.

 The head of the Presidency’s Council of Advisors, Ali Al-Shukry, said in an exclusive interview with the Iraqi News Agency (INA): “The Presidency’s Council of Advisors has formed a committee for constitutional amendments, and the focus of the Presidency of the Republic is that the amendments be of an objective nature, away from political consensus,” pointing to  "The committee included (23) academics, including university professors, three representatives of the demonstrators, as well as representatives of the United Nations and the European Union, in cooperation with the Canadian Governance Institute, and there is no politician there."

 Al-Shukry pointed out that “according to the constitution, the constitutional amendment must be submitted by the Presidency of the Republic and the Council of Ministers, and a committee was formed from the former Council of Ministers for this purpose, and three meetings were held with the governmental committee, but it stopped after the previous government submitted its resignation,” indicating that  “The Constitutional Amendments Committee, according to the President’s directives, has completed its work, and proposals for amendments must now be submitted to the Council of Ministers, and President Salih has issued a directive to contact the Prime Minister’s Office to present the constitutional amendments to come up with a joint letter between the Cabinet and the Presidency of the Republic and go to the House of Representatives.  And it is submitted to the popular referendum, which has the final say on the amendments. "

  Proposed amendments

 Al-Shukry added that “the proposed amendments included preparing an integrated project, starting from the preamble to the constitution and ending with the last text, and some deficiencies that were originally present in the constitution were completed, including the formation of the Federation Council, defining its powers, and the amendments included the powers of the President of the Republic, as well as the number of members of the House of Representatives.  The committee presented two proposals, the first for every 100,000 voters, not for every 100,000 people, which makes the number of members of the House of Representatives approximately 175 deputies instead of 329 deputies, explaining that “the second proposal is for every 250,000 people to have one deputy, because  There is an explosion in the number of members of the House of Representatives, in addition to that "the amendments included modifying the method of selecting representatives, whereby the candidate's age was set at 25 years, and the academic achievement to middle school, as well as a change in the composition of the Federal Supreme Court, and that these amendments are almost an integrated project,"  There are no specific articles on which the committee disagreed. "

  The head of the Council of Advisors continued that "the committee suggested within the amendments that the formation of the government be through the party or the bloc that wins the elections, and not the one formed after the elections, so that the bloc that won the highest seats is the one who advances the prime minister, noting that the winning bloc may not be able to form.  Government alone, except through a coalition government, ”indicating that“ the committee did not finally address the issue of the center’s relationship with the region, because those who arranged this relationship and who drafted the constitution in 2005 are the founders of the political process after 2003, and that relationship was established on the basis of consensus, and today it is not we can express an opinion on it, because the committee does not want to violate the principle adopted by the founders in the circle of the total state, and everything related to the center and the region cannot be discussed by an academic committee, rather there must be a political committee that discusses this issue and not an academic committee.

 Committee members

 Al-Shukry stated that “the Constitutional Amendments Committee included Dr. Mohsen Al-Saadoun, a former deputy, who was previously the head of the legal committee in the House of Representatives. He was also among the committee that worked in drafting the constitution in 2005, and the committee also included Dr. Ali Al-Rafi'i, an academic and holder  Doctorate in law, as well as Dr. Amer Hassan Fayyad, an academic and a doctorate in political science, Dr. Ali Al-Yaqoubi from Al-Mansour University College, Dr. Maytham Handhal, Dean of the Shatt Al-Arab University College in Basra, and Dr. Amer Ayyash Al-Jubouri, he was assistant president of the University and holder of  Doctorate in law from Salah al-Din University, and Dr. Aras Jaafar, a doctorate in law from the University of Kirkuk, and other academics, "affirming that" the amendments will come out after agreement is reached with the Prime Minister's Office, and will come out with a printed book and a copy of the amendments is now with the committee. "

 He indicated that "the copy of the amendments will include everything that has been circulated by the members of the committee, for example Ali Shukri, what he said on this topic, and Mohsen Al-Saadoun what he said regarding Article 126, as well as comments by members, and each committee member presented his opinion," noting that "there is two copies, and one of these two copies includes the proposals and discussions on each proposal, and the opinions of the members of the committee on each article in the amendments.

 Supporting the government's steps

 Al-Shukry stressed that "the steps taken by the prime minister deserve support, and that the president of the republic is the prime minister's first supporter, especially that President Salih is the first to support the idea of ​​early elections, and the first statement issued after the Friday sermon for the reference in this regard is the statement of the President of the Republic, which confirmed the action."  Early elections, and now the President of the Republic is the biggest supporter of the Prime Minister, considering that the two presidencies are an executive authority, as well as on the issue of demonstrations, the President of the Republic is especially with regard to uncovering the killers of the demonstrators, ”noting that“ the President of the Republic today in all his steps works in coordination with the Prime Minister  And I think that even constitutional, the step of requesting the amendment of the constitution is to be at the joint request of the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister. In all steps, the President of the Republic stands with the Prime Minister in order to fix the path, and I believe that the Prime Minister’s step is to visit a border outlet in Kurdistan,  It is a very successful step, because Al-Kadhmi is the first prime minister to visit the border crossings, and it is certain that the Kurdish citizen when he sees that the prime minister visits him and stands by him is a very important step. "

 The Early elections

 Al-Shukry pointed out that "the meeting of the United Nations representative in Iraq, Jeanine Hennis Blasshardt, with the Supreme Leader, Mr. Ali Al-Sistani, represents a road map for early elections, and cut the way for anyone who does not want to hold elections," stressing that "the reference data and its directives are characterized by extreme accuracy, so their guidance was a must."  The elections will not be delayed, since delaying them will have negative aspects. Likewise, holding the elections on time and without correct introductions will have incorrect effects as well. The reference is to confirm the correct introductions.

 He explained, "It is now believed that all political blocs will work in one direction to conduct the elections on the date set by the prime minister, with his observations in accordance with the law, and that the cabinet proposed the date at a time based on the proposal of the High Elections Commission, which is the powers of the executive authority, and the House of Representatives is compatible with all of its blocks."  Political on it. "

 He explained that "among the criteria set by the authority is that there is actual technical assistance from the United Nations in the elections, and I believe that if these criteria are implemented by the reference, we will come out with satisfactory results for the Iraqi people," noting that "the UN representative, after leaving Najaf al-Ashraf, went to  Sulaymaniyah and went to the President of the Republic as the guardian of the constitution, and he is the one who begins the first step by agreeing with the Prime Minister to request the dissolution of Parliament, and conveyed to the President what I heard from the supreme authority and his assurances that the elections would be held on time with the correct introductions, and she expressed the United Nations’s readiness to provide the required technical assistance.

 Foreign affairs

 With regard to Iraq's foreign relations, Al-Shukry said: "Iraq in these days or in the recent recent period has begun to move away from the policy of axes, and always with all the meetings of the Presidency of the Republic with all foreign diplomats and foreign delegations confirm this, which is the necessity of dealing with Iraq as  A fully sovereign state and not a dependent state, "stressing that" the visit of the French president has great international support, and this visit was well received, and the French president promised to support the European Union to Iraq in all its reform steps, and that Iraq is on the verge of investing this international support. As for Iraq's positions are towards Arab issues. Iraq is supportive of these issues in all levels, and the first to extend a helping hand to its brothers in Lebanon with aid planes, and in Sudan, Iraq was one of the first Arab countries to send aid planes, and Iraq today has begun to take its natural role that is commensurate with its size  And its weight in the regional and international arenas. "

 As for the strategic dialogue between Iraq and the United States, Al-Shukry clarified that "the prime minister is primarily responsible for the negotiation file, not the presidency, but directing the presidency is to emphasize dealing with Iraq as a fully sovereign state," pointing out that he "believes  That the debate must take place between the Council of Ministers and the House of Representatives under the auspices of the Presidency, because there is a difference in views. The House of Representatives voted with a clear decision on the exit of the American forces, and there is also a government team under the supervision of the Prime Minister that conducts strategic framework talks between Iraq and the United States, and therefore I think that  The role of the presidency is close to viewpoints. "

 Control of weapons

 He pointed out that: "It is not possible to control this amount of weapons overnight, and now the step has begun in Basra, and I think that the results achieved are excellent, and will start in the other governorates, since the government has begun to control the movement of weapons, this means that we have started an important reform step,  Especially with the targeting of the Green Zone with missiles, and the presence of fugitive weapons everywhere. "

  He pointed out that "those who fight in the provinces are the clans, and that weapons have become a usual thing for everyone, and when a plan is imposed to control weapons, it must be imposed on everyone, whether they are political forces or citizens, and there is no benefit in imposing control over political forces and weapons."  It is present with the clans, and the unlicensed weapons are directed against the state, and the proof of this is that they did not obtain a license from the Ministry of Interior.

 Turkish attacks

 Regarding the repeated Turkish attacks on Iraqi lands, Al-Shukry stressed that "the response to these attacks must be appropriate with the scale of the assault on Iraqi lands, and in return it must be recognized that the PKK elements constitute a threat to Turkey, but this threat does not justify the aggression."  On Iraqi lands, "noting that" Iraq turned to diplomacy through the statements of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to the Arab League. "

 He continued: "The Presidency of the Republic has taken important steps commensurate with this issue, and has issued statements regarding these attacks, and the Turkish side resorts to the traditional argument that there are elements threatening Turkey's security, and we must acknowledge this, and that the Kurdistan region confirms that the Workers' Party members constitute a threat,  But Turkey's use of this issue is not justified to remain silent on the Turkish attacks, and now the violations of these elements that are inside the Iraqi territories must be addressed, and Iraq, in these circumstances, is now unable to address them, because these elements are spread in the mountains.

 Execution of terrorists

 Al-Shukry said, "There is a meeting of the President of the Republic with a committee that examines the procedures for implementing death sentences, and that there is more than one party that has addressed the Presidency of the Republic in order to ratify death sentences, and it has been informed that there is a committee to audit the procedures for issuing death sentences from the formal aspects regarding the issuance of the felonies of stabbing."  With discrimination and the issuance of the cassation judgment and the exhaustion of correction, all of these matters are examined by the committee. "

 Facing Corona

 Al-Shukry noted that “the Presidency of the Republic, since the outbreak of the Corona epidemic, met with the former Minister of Health and in the presence of the representative of the World Health Organization in Iraq, and that the Presidency of the Republic formed a committee to confront the Corona pandemic, provided aid, and was sent to all governorates, according to the spread of the epidemic within the initiative of the President of the Republic, and now the second batch will arrive soon within the same initiative, and that President Saleh is in contact with the Minister of Health, and he met with the Minister of Health three times to discuss ways to confront this pandemic, and the President presented a letter of thanks to all the employees of the Ministry of Health and the President is following this file.