LOC21:44
18:44 GMT
BAGHDAD, Oct 18 (KUNA) -- Iraqi government said here Monday that it does
not intend to mention the ethnic origins of citizens during upcoming census
next December.
A terse statement made by the Iraqi Ministry of Planning quoted Minister
Ali Baban, whose ministry is supervising the census, as making the previous
remark.
Baban said that "the Ministry of Planning intends to scrape a question on
ethnicity in the upcoming census," without referring to more details on the
decision.
However, political disagreements on the ethnicity caused the postponement
of census many times in what pushed the Iraqi government to decide its start
from October 23 till December 5, though its preparations completed long time
ago.
The Ministry of Planning backtracked on setting the religious sect among
the questions of census, while it decided keeping the question on the
religion's appellation unchanged.
Further, northern Iraqi cities of Kirkuk and Nineveh see political
disagreements between Kurds on one side and Arabs and Turkmen on the other
side as every party claims forming the majority of population in both cities.
Kurds calls for annexing Kirkuk governorate as well as some towns of
Nineveh governorate to Kurdish autonomous region due to their dominant Kurdish
population, according to their statement, though this matter is denied by both
Arabs and Turkmen.
Iraq undergoes severe political crises due to the postponement of census
for many times, particularly as its parliamentary system sets a number of
seats for each governorate based on the number of population, while state
budget allocates a particular quota to Kurdistan based on its population,
though in both cases Iraq relies on approximate statistics. (end)
ahh.aff
KUNA 182144 Oct 10NNNN