A bill to review the distribution of seats in the House of
Representatives among the different Iraqi electoral districts, published
by the relevant parliamentary institutions on Monday, February 20, also
provides for the increase of seats reserved for Christian minorities:
from five to six, with the addition of one seat reserved for Christian
Armenians in the capital Baghdad. The seats of the new Parliamentary Assembly, according to the bill to be submitted to the discussion of the political forces, would increase from 325 to 328, with 318 of them distributed among the different provinces according to administrative boundaries.
Sabians, Mandaeans and Yazidis in the new Parliament would have only one seat guaranteed for each of the three minorities.
Meanwhile, Chaldean Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako, some authoritative representatives of the Chaldean League during the meeting on Sunday, February 19 in Erbil, renewed the call to implement processes of reconciliation and cooperation among all of social, ethnic and religious components in Iraq, avoiding to transform even the references to different confessional affiliations of Christians in excuses to accentuate sectarian rifts that continue to threaten the country's unity.