The constitution, the final countdown.

Tomorrow will witness fixing the key axis of the change process that's been developing Iraq since the dictator was ousted 28 months ago.
The final draft of the constitution will be submitted to the National Assembly to get approval after reaching agreements over the disputed issues (which are still being discussed right now) and among the main issues here we have federalism, religion and state and a number of smaller issues tolling up to 18 according to a recent statement by president Talbani who seemed confident that no issues will need to be scheduled for after the next elections.

Meanwhile Mr. Saad Qandil (CDC member) told Al-Sabah paper that political powers will approve federalism based on the following rules: a) it is a right of individual or multiple provinces to form federal states and that includes all provinces with no exceptions. And b) federal states enjoy the same rights and duties with no discrimination.
In the same regard Mrs. Maryam Arrayis (CDC member) said that approving federalism in a certain province (or number of provinces) will need the agreement of two thirds of the members of the city council in the involved province(s) and that a referendum will follow to get 'simple majority'.

On the other hand Salih Al-Mutlaq (Sunni figure in the CDC) said that leaders of political blocks have agreed on that distribution of oil revenues among provinces will be according to population counts in these provinces.

Many of the political figures in Iraq right now believe that postponing finishing the constitution would have major negative effects on progress in Iraq but Iyad Allawi in an interview with a Jordanian newspaper emphasized that preparing what is needed to protect the constitution is even more important than the writing one.
And Allawi added explaining that finishing the draft is not the end of the process and that it is a continuous process to meet the needs of the society and the future changes in circumstances.

Anyway, tomorrow will bring answers to many questions and speculations and I think that despite all the difficulties that accompanied the process we have made way more progress (in terms of politics) in the last two years than our neighbors had and I am sure that no one will be able to enforce his opinion on the people again and Iraqis will not accept a constitution that doesn't convince them.

Power is moving practically to the hands of the people and we've seen how protests and pressure from the people in the last few weeks have forced the elected representatives to reconsider their decisions and change them in not a few cases.
It's clear now to the government and the National Assembly that being elected doesn't give them unlimited authority and that voters are watching and will hold them accountable.