Amendment to the Constitution of Iraq

The government of Iraq has established a committee to consider a proposed amendment to the Constitution of Iraq.

The current Constitution of Iraq was drafted by a committee of the Iraqi Transitional Government. The agreed text was put to a referendum in October 2005. It was approved by 79% of voters and 15 out of 18 governorates.

In an agreement prior to the referendum, the largest Sunni Arab majority party, the Iraqi Islamic Party agreed to support a "Yes" vote as long as the first parliament elected under the constitution agreed to consider amendments. This agreement was written into Article 142 of the constitution.

Article 142 of the constitution states that the Council of Representatives shall form a committee from its members "representing the principal components of the Iraqi society", which should present proposed amendments to the Council within four months. The amendment package shall be voted on as a whole by the Council, and if it is passed, put to a referendum, which shall pass if approved by a majority of voters and is not rejected by a two-thirds majority in three or more governorates. The conditions for this referendum are the same as the conditions for the original ratification referendum.

The constitution can also be amended by a general procedure, laid down in Article 126, which requires a two-thirds approval in the Council of Ministers, followed by approval by a simple majority in a referendum.

The committee of 27 was appointed on 2006-09-25, chaired by Iraqi Accord Front member Ayad al-Samarrai. The committee comprised 27 members drawn from senior politicians across the political spectrum in rough proportions to the Council of Representatives of Iraq that was elected in the Iraqi legislative election of December 2005:

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