Word: referendums
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...growing number of Sunni political and insurgent groups are threatening to boycott the referendum on Iraq's constitution, a step that would effectively derail the political process and undermine any prospect of the Oct. 15 vote helping to end the insurgency. Many Sunni groups say the vote would be meaningless, since their community is being denied a fair chance to vote down the draft constitution - and they believed their suspicions were confirmed by Sunday's vote in the Shiite-led Iraqi parliament to rewrite the rules in a way that effectively made it impossible for Sunnis to defeat the constitution...
...important first step that (the Shiite parties) have withdrawn the ruling, but this entire episode has convinced many of us that they will try anything to win the referendum," Saleh Mutlaq, one of the Sunni leaders who have been negotiating with the government over the constitution, told TIME. The transitional constitution drawn up by the U.S. holds that the new charter can be defeated if it is rejected by two thirds of voters in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces. That was always going to be a tall order for the Sunnis, because although they make up the majority...
...battle, those opposed to Turkey's membership may yet win the war. The likely next German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has long argued for something short of full membership for Turkey. And French president Jacques Chirac, who says he favors Turkish membership, has pressed through a constitutional amendment demanding a referendum in France to approve any new member of the EU. An editorial in Germany's centrist Sueddeutsche Zeitung sensed a whiff of hypocrisy in the pressure on Austria to kick the ball forward again. "The Austrian government deserves merit for speaking openly what a majority of the citizens think: that...
...Cheney and one of the White House's most aggressive strategists, will leave for Baghdad early this week to spend up to a month assessing media relations in the war zone. Back home, Cheney and President Bush will give major speeches this week on Iraq's Oct. 15 constitutional referendum. Administration officials say the addresses aim to define the terrorist insurgency as an enemy with a clear strategy, and to portray dire consequences if the U.S. were to withdraw. Vice President Cheney flies to Camp Lejeune, N.C., for a Monday rally with Marines, while President Bush motorcades to the Ronald...
...stronger tobacco in the form of a plethora of Trotskyite, anti-globalization parties. Despite that debacle, which led to Chirac's broad and - for the left - bitter victory, the potential for the far left is stronger than ever. The proof: An ample majority of Socialists voted no in the referendum on the European Constitution on May 29. While that current still hasn't coalesced under a strong leader and may never do so, the fact that the German far-left garnered almost 10 percent of the vote has to worry French Socialist party leader Francois¸ Hollande. That would seem...