Iraqis rushed to the ballot boxes in large numbers Saturday to vote on the constitutional referendum. Sixty-one percent of Iraqis voted, surpassing the 58 percent of citizens that voted in January.
If the referendum passes, Iraqis will democratically elect a new parliament on Dec. 15, 2005, and the new government will take office by Dec. 31, 2005.
Sunnis, dominant in Saddam's Iraq and now leading the insurgency, widely oppose the draft charter because they believe its federalist system will tear the country into Kurdish and Shiite mini-states in the north and oil-rich south, leaving Sunnis concentrated in the resource-poor center and west. Sunnis make up about one-fifth of Iraq's 27 million people.
The constitution could be progressive but it may be reactionary, according to UW-Madison Middle Eastern Studies professor Samer Alatout.
By ensuring that Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds have representation, the constitution will institute a set of guarantees. However, by disregarding the factional nature of the country the constitution will not ensure Iraqi national unity, according to Alatout.
\Actively, it divides them into ethnic and religious minorities rather than national citizenship,"" Alatout said. ""And in that sense, what they are doing is reproducing exactly the problem within Iraq now.""
The constitution itself declares that it seeks to absolve those differences.
""Sectarianism and racism have not stopped us from marching together to strengthen our national unity, and to follow the path of peaceful transfer of power and adopt the course of the just distribution of resources and providing equal opportunity for all,"" according to the English translation of the Preamble.
The constitution also states that Iraqis have the right to educate their children in their native language and emphasizes Iraqis' equality ""before the law without discrimination based on gender, race, ethnicity, origin, color, religion, creed, belief or opinion, or economic and social status.""
The lack of references and provisions for specific groups within Iraq leaves the nation's future in question, according to UW-Madison history professor Jeremi Suri.
""I think it certainly will have the effect of focusing attention on building a government and that's a good thing. But what that government will look like whether it will be a series of separate governments for the Kurds or Shiites, or whether they will find some way, as people hope, for them to be a united government, remains to be seen,"" Suri said. ""We've kind of put that question off for awhile, and now we'll have to confront it directly.""
-The Los Angeles Times/Washington Post news service
contributed to this article.
