Iraqi lawmakers were scrambling to avert a political crisis on Monday as they raced to meet a midnight deadline for submitting the draft of a new constitution to Parliament under intense US pressure.Political party leaders met separately from the 71-member constitution drafting committee to try to muscle through a deal, but persistent disagreement remained on at least two issues—federal autonomy and the role of Islam in the state.Yonadem Kanna, a Christian member of the drafting team, said the committee was waiting for the leaders to come back to them with a proposed text, which would then have to be approved.He said he saw little possibility that it could be approved by all parties then submitted to Parliament in time for a session scheduled for 6 p.m. and thought a request to Parliament for an extension to the deadline was likely. ‘‘We will have to ask for an extension, I believe,’’ he said, adding that he thought the committee would need two weeks.Hussain al-Shahristani, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, said a decision was looming on whether to submit the draft to Parliament as it stood or consider more dramatic options, including changing the interim constitution to allow a delay.Last year’s interim, US-sponsored charter, known as the Transitional Administrative Law, or TAL, laid down August 15 as the deadline for completing a draft of the new constitution, which must be voted on in an October referendum. According to the TAL, if no draft of the constitution is completed by August 15, the National Assembly should be dissolved and elections for a new Assembly held before December 15, 2005. But such a dramatic turn of events appears unlikely.If a constitution is agreed upon, and approved in the October referendum, then voting will also be held by mid-December. ‘‘The first option is that everyone agrees on a draft of the constitution and it is presented to the National Assembly for approval on time,’’ Shahristani said.Otherwise, he said, the National Assembly could vote and, if three quarters of the house agree, amend the TAL to allow more time to draft the new constitution. ‘‘That is a very likely possibility,’’ he said, adding that if that route were taken an extension of between two weeks and one month would likely be sought.Such a move could be embarrassing for Washington, which has piled pressure on Iraqi leaders to meet the deadline. The US Ambassador is playing a prominent role in the talks.Members of the drafting committee said another possibility was that Shi’ites and Kurds, who between them have an overwhelming majority in the Assembly and who also broadly agree on the wording of the constitution, could decide to present a draft to Parliament on their own, ignoring Sunni objections.One way around the looming impasse would be a fudge.Since there appears to be broad agreement on most of the text, it is possible that an incomplete draft could be presented to Parliament and accepted in the interim.‘‘It’s possible that we could accept a draft that covers basically 99 per cent of the clauses and allows a bit more time to complete negotiations over the other issues,’’ said Shahristani. —Reuters
