BAGHDAD, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi parliament on Monday voted by majority to merge the country's national and provincial elections in 2018, amid heated debates over the system of counting votes and provincial elections in the ethnically-mixed Kirkuk province, the official television reported on Monday.
"The Council of Representatives (parliament) has voted in merging the provincial and the parliamentary elections at the same date that was stated by the constitution for the parliamentary elections," the state-run Iraqiya channel said.
The latest decision meant that the parliament has approved the delay of the country's provincial elections which was originally scheduled to be held on September 16.
The parliament decision did not stated specific date for the merged elections, but according to the constitution the elections will be held late in the spring of 2018, as the last parliamentary elections was held in April 30, 2014.
The Iraqi constitution stated that the electoral term of the parliament is to be "four calendar years, starting with its first session and ending with the conclusion of the fourth year."
The parliament session, which was dedicated to approve the controversial draft of the provincial elections, witnessed heated debates between the political blocs mainly over an article of proposed law stating Saint-Lague system in counting the votes for the provincial councils' seats.
On Friday, dozens of thousands of firebrand Moqtada al-Sadr followers rallied in Tahrir Square in central Baghdad to protest wide spread corruption in the country and the provincial elections draft law which was seen by Sadr as taking into account the interests of the same old large parliamentary blocs and their corrupt people.
Moreover, the debates on Monday's parliament session included the controversial issue of holding provincial elections in Kirkuk, which is part of the disputed areas between Baghdad government and the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.
The parliament passed most of the articles of the provincial elections draft, and postponed the voting for the rest of the draft to later sessions, including the article of the elections in Kirkuk after the Kurdish lawmakers walked out of the session.
