Although Iraq's interim constitution gave the assembly exclusive control over the drafting process, the assembly wisely reached out beyond its membership in creating a constitutional drafting committee.
Reaching out was an important component of establishing the rule of law, and it also sent a message that Iraq had truly turned a corner - that no single party sought to dominate Iraq. This was an important signal that those elected to the National assembly understood that democracy does not mean merely the will of the majority.
Instead, all Iraqis were allowed to participate in the process and, though consensus was not ultimately reached, that, too, was a part of the democratisation process. In the end, Iraq's voters will decide whether this is a constitution under which they wish to be governed for the foreseeable future. Those who chose not to participate in last January's elections will most certainly do so now, both in the referendum and in the upcoming elections to a new assembly in December.
A second important feature of the drafting process was the extent to which the national assembly complied with the requirements of Iraq's interim constitution, the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL). At the time of the transfer of authority in June of 2004, many pundits predicted that an elected national assembly would ignore an interim constitution drafted by an unelected governing council and promulgated by an occupying authority. Yet that did not happen.
Source: MENAFN
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