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Ammar Tu'ma, a member of Parliament with the Fadhila Party who serves on the Committee on Constitutional Amendments said that the mechanisms set in place in the Iraqi constitution required the May 15 deadline.
“The mechanism in the committee requires that we obtain consensus among the political blocs on the amendments before they are submitted to the Parliament.” However, he added that “In the case of a lack of consensus . . . the amendments will be submitted to the parliament as they are, and the Parliament will resolve the issue by voting.”
Ti'ma explained that any decision in the Parliament will take all the amendments as a package in one up-or-down vote, rather than voting on each individual amendment.
If the Parliament approves the amendments, they will be submitted to a popular referendum for final approval.
The MP explained that the May 15 deadline was required by Article 142 of the Iraqi constitution, which states that after forming a constitutional amendment committee, the committee must submit the amendments to the parliament after a period not exceeding four months.
The Constitutional Amendment Committee was formed on November 15, 2006, making May 15 the four-month mark, figuring in an intervening two-month break when the Parliament did not hold session.
As for the amendments themselves, Tu'ma said that the controversial matters within the committee included “federalism, the distribution of (oil and gas) wealth, the identity of Iraq, de-Ba'thification, and the opposition of federal (i.e. provincial) and central law.”
Article 142 of the Iraqi constitution reads as follows:
Article 142:First: The Council of Representatives shall form at the beginning of its work a committee from its members representing the principal components of Iraqi society with the mission of presenting a report to the Council of Representatives, within a period not to exceed four months, that contains recommendations of the necessary amendments which could be made to the constitution, and the committee shall be dissolved after a decision is made regarding its proposals.
Second: The proposed amendments shall be presented to the Council of Representatives all at once for voting, and shall be deemed approved with the agreement of the absolute majority of the members of the Council.
Third: The articles amended by the Council of Representatives pursuant to item (second) of this Article shall be presented to the people for voting on it in a referendum within a period not exceeding two months from the date of its approval by the Council of Representatives.
Fourth: The referendum on the amended Articles shall be successful by the approval of the majority of the voters, and if not rejected by two third of the voters in three governorates or more.
Fifth: Article (122) of the constitution (concerning amending the constitution) shall be suspended, and shall return into force after the amendment stipulated in this Article have been decided upon.
