Iraq’s governing council believes it will take many months to draw up a Constitution before power can be handed over to an Iraqi government through a general election.
The warning will come as a challenge to the United States administration, which is under pressure from foreign critics such as France, and from Iraqis, to transfer power swiftly to a local administration.
Last week, in an apparent concession, the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, set a six-month deadline for Iraqis to write their new Constitution. But members of the governing council said on Wednesday it would be impossible to complete the task so quickly. One council source said it could take more than a year for a document to be agreed.
”It cannot be done in six months,” said Dara Nor al-Din, an appeal court judge and member of the US-appointed council. ”They will need time to read the documents and understand the issues for a country with so many different sects, religions and ethnic groups.”
The Constitution will encapsulate some of the most pressing issues facing Iraqis after three decades of dictatorship. It will determine the role Islam will play, whether there will be a presidential or a parliamentary system, and how much federalism will be incorporated in the architecture of the new state.
But the council has yet to decide even how to select the ”convention” of Iraqis who will draw up the new Constitution.
A preparatory committee this week presented a 10-page report suggesting methods of selecting the convention.
Options range from holding nationwide elections to choose a list of Iraqis for the convention, to simply appointing a small group of technocrats who would finish the task more quickly.
Some on the council are keen to see power transferred quickly, and so favour a smaller, unelected group.
Din said the convention should comprise only 20 appointed Iraqis. Some within the US-led authority in Baghdad appear to favour ”partial elections”, in which Iraqis would be selected for the convention through a broad consultation process, in the same way that the governing council was formed in July.
Ultimately, Paul Bremer, the US civilian administrator of Iraq, will have the final say. But he will be reluctant to oppose the council’s decisions too strongly.
The council is still eager to assert its authority, particularly on security, where it wants the American military to cede more control to Iraqis.
The European Union is to commit â,¬200-million to help rebuild Iraq at the international donors’ conference in Madrid later this month.
Chris Patten, the EU external relations commissioner, said that all the money would be available before the end of 2004.— Â