Despite strong Sunni opposition, the Iraqi people officially approved the constitution in a referendum held Oct. 15, the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq announced Tuesday.
Startlingly high levels of approval in provinces such as Basra and Erbil and the referendum's success in Sunni-influenced Nineveh raised officials' suspicions of potential voter fraud. Nonetheless, as of press time, officials had found no evidence of voter fraud in Iraq.
'The IECI deserves praise for the professional manner in which it conducted the referendum,' Special Representative of the Secretary General of Iraq Ashraf Qazi wrote in a United Nations release.
However, the approval has given rise to fears over a more polarized Iraq.
'The new constitution has hardened ethnic and sectarian divisions,' said Tamir Moustafa, UW-Madison assistant professor of political science.
The fact that the constitution received strong opposition in the two Sunni majority provinces, Anbar and Salahaddin, 'does not bode well for the future,' Moustafa said. Qazi similarly addressed Iraq's ethnic and religious divisiveness.
'The results of the referendum have indicated the degree of political polarization in Iraq,' Qazi wrote. 'This poses an ongoing challenge for all Iraqis and underscores the importance of an inclusive national dialogue.'
Moustafa said he believes the constitution itself contains the seeds of future political and economic conflicts.
Control of future oil revenues by local rather than federal forces raises the possibility of tensions between oil-poor Sunni provinces and the oil-rich north and southeast of the country.
The United States pushed for the quick adoption of a constitution, despite the lack of consensus among the parties involved in order to speed up the timeline of American withdrawal, according to Moustafa.
'That impulse was shortsighted and risks turning Iraq into even more of a quagmire,' Moustafa said.
Others said they maintained optimism for Iraq's future and a vision of a unified state.
'Within the next four months of the new assembly, there will be a formal review and it's expected that there will be amendments to meet the concerns of Sunnis,' said UW-Madison visiting professor of law, Yash Ghai.
Ghai, a renowned international authority on constitutional law and human rights, said such parliamentary amendments could potentially assuage insurgent violence in Iraq. Accommodating Sunni, Shiite and Kurd concerns could ease the transition to more consensual politics and reduce insurgent activity, Ghai said.
'Let's hope that they can resolve differences so that everyone can come around to the constitution' Ghai said.
