Iraqi rebels shot dead an MP and wounded another hours before parliament signed off the much-awaited draft constitution Sunday, paving the way for the charter to be put to a referendum on October 15.
"We are handing the draft over to the UN," deputy parliamentary speaker Hussein Sharistani said after reading out five constitution articles amended following talks between dominant Shiites and Kurds and minority Sunni Arabs.
The amendments to the text, adopted by parliament in late August, were agreed to following informal talks in an attempt to bring on board the disenchanted Sunni Arab minority which had objected to several key provisions.
One article was amended to say that Iraq "is a founding and effective member of the Arab League" aimed at soothing Sunni Arab who had called for the country's identity to be identified as 'Arab', something the Kurds had in turn objected to.
A new article was added to create two deputy premier posts, while another amendment stipulated that the federal government would ensure an equitable distribution of water resources between the regions. The draft will now be sent to the UN representatives tasked with printing five million copies - in Arabic and Kurdish - for distribution to the public ahead of the referendum. "If everything goes well we will start printing the constitution tomorrow (Monday). It will take approximately 10 days to print if nothing goes wrong," a UN official said.
But Sunni panelist Saleh al-Motlaq slammed the decision to put the charter to a referendum in its current form as "unwise and reckless" and announced the setting up of a new national front to campaign against the constitution.
"The National Iraqi Front will vie to collect five million signatures in a petition saying 'No' to the constitution," he told AFP. Meanwhile, a Kurdish MP was shot dead in a road ambush on Saturday, the third lawmaker to be assassinated since the January 30 general elections.
Fares Naser Hussein was killed and his colleague Hayder Kasim Shenshu wounded in the attack in which their driver and a bodyguard also died, an interior ministry official said. The ambush took place near Mushahadah, some 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of the capital, as the two members of the Kurdish list in parliament were heading towards Baghdad.