By QASSEM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer *1 hour, 49 minutes ago*
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The [United Nations](http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=United+Nations) has criticized last-minute changes [Iraq](http://search.news.yahoo.com/search/news/?p=Iraq)'s Shiite-led government made to its electoral laws before an Oct. 15 vote on a new constitution, and U.N. officials Tuesday were trying to persuade lawmakers to reverse the amendments, a U.N. spokesman said.
U.N. officials warned the Iraqis that the changes — which make it nearly impossible for Sunni Arabs to defeat the constitution at the polls — violate international standards. Sunni leaders threatened to boycott the vote.
“Ultimately, this will be a sovereign decision by the Iraqis, and it’s up to the Iraqi National Assembly to decide on the appropriate electoral framework,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at U.N. headquarters in New York.
“That being said, it is our duty in our role in Iraq to point out when the process does not meet international standards,” he said, adding that as far as he knew there had been no discussion between the United Nations and U.S. officials on the issue.
A Sunni boycott of the referendum would deeply undermine the legitimacy of a constitution Washington had hoped would unite Iraq’s disparate factions and erode support among its Sunni Arab minority for the country’s bloody insurgency.
Election rules hold that the constitution will be defeated if two-thirds of voters in any three of Iraq’s 18 provinces vote against it — even if it wins majority approval nationwide. Sunni Arabs have a sufficient majority in four provinces.
But on Sunday, parliament passed a new interpretation of the rules declaring that two-thirds of registered voters must vote “no” — not two-thirds of those who actually vote. The interpretation raises the bar to a level almost impossible to meet. In a province of 1 million registered voters, for example, 660,000 would have to vote “no” — even if that many didn’t even come to the polls.
The dispute over the rule changes threatens to deepen Sunni disillusionment with the political process.
“The aim of this move is to pass the constitution and impose it on everybody regardless of their opinions,” said Saleh al-Mutlaq, the main Sunni figure on the commission that drafted the constitution. He opposed the final text.
“Boycotting the referendum is a possible option that we are thinking of, because we believe that participating in the voting might be useless,” al-Mutlaq said.
Meanwhile, officials began distributing the constitution to the public. About 5 million copies printed by the United Nations arrived Monday in Iraq, and officials began handing out the first ones, said Laura Makdissi, a U.N. official in Baghdad.
So far, distribution — most of which will take place through agents who provide food ration cards — appeared limited. In the major cities of Basra, Mosul and Kirkuk and in neighborhoods of Baghdad, residents and rationing agents said they had not seen any copies.
Sunni Arabs boycotted January parliamentary elections, meaning they have hardly any representation in the legislature. For the Oct. 15 vote, they were gearing up to participate in force — a sign of acceptance of the political system, even if it was aimed at defeating the constitution and forcing a new one to be written.
Now Sunnis are saying they were being cheated, accusing the Shiites of using their dominance of the government to stack the deck against them.
“This is fraud aimed at distorting the truth, it aims to foil any effort to bring down the constitution” Ayad al-Samarraie, a senior official in the Iraqi Islamic Party — one of the main Sunni Arab groups — told The Associated Press.
Sunni Arabs oppose the constitution because they say its strong federalist bent will tear Iraq apart into Shiite and Kurdish mini-states in the north and south, leaving Sunnis weak in a central region without oil resources.
Even more galling to Sunnis, the interpretation says the same word in Arabic and English — “voters” — means two different things in one sentence of the election rules.
The article in question in the interim constitution reads: “The general referendum will be successful and the draft constitution ratified if a majority of the voters in Iraq approve and if two-thirds of the voters in three or more provinces do not reject it.”
The committee decided that while the first reference to “voters” in the clause refers to those who cast votes, the second refers to all those registered to vote
“No one has the right to explain things they way he likes,” said al-Samarraie. “There should be one interpretation for the word ‘voter,’ or else we will appeal over the referendum and its results.”
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demo-crazy in its full flow. U-Ass-A Style :rolleyes: