FACTBOX-Iraq's provincial elections law
BAGHDAD, Aug 6 (Reuters) - A feud over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk is holding up a law that will pave the way for provincial elections in Iraq, seen as an important step in strengthening the country's fragile democracy.
The polls will mark the first time Iraqis vote since the thick of an insurgency three years ago, and are seen as a chance to give a greater voice to factions that shunned past elections.
Below are facts about the provincial elections and the law governing them.
THE PROVINCIAL POLLS
* The elections are for seats on Iraq's provincial councils. The polls were originally scheduled for Oct. 1 but are now likely to be held towards the end of 2008 at the earliest.
* Many Sunni Arabs and some Shi'ite groups boycotted the last provincial elections in 2005, alienating some of Iraq's key factions and creating political imbalances that continue to fuel instability.
* Iraq's minority Kurds oppose any steps that would allow the elections to weaken their control of Kirkuk, which they hope someday to fold into their largely autonomous northern region. That move is opposed by Kirkuk's Arabs and Turkmen.
* Washington is applying pressure on Iraqi leaders to resolve their differences quickly and avoid a long delay.
THE ELECTIONS LAW
* Parliament voted last month to pass the provincial elections law, but the ballot was marred by a Kurdish boycott. The law would have fixed ethnic quotas for Kirkuk's council seats and replaced Kurdish Peshmerga forces in the province with troops from elsewhere in Iraq, measures the Kurds opposed.
* Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, vetoed the law passed last month as unconstitutional because it was passed in the absence of a major parliamentary faction. Parliament has rescheduled a second vote several times, and negotiations on the impasse continue.
* A U.N.-backed plan to resolve the deadlock would authorise the elections to go ahead across the rest of the country, but delay them for Kirkuk and leave the most contentious issues for a separate law to be passed at a later date.
(Editing by Robert Hart)
