March 8, 2004
Iraqi Constitution Created
The 62-article document signed March 8 was designed to provide a type structure for the country's temporary government until elections could be held and a permanent constitution written. The document required that an election for a national assembly must happen by January 31, 2005. It also contained a kind of bill of rights and established Islam as Iraq's official religion. There was also many difficult questions facing the new nation, as in who will run the government after June 30, 2004, when the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) returns sovereignty to Iraq. It was more like a set of procedures then an enforceable legal document. The 25-member Iraqi Governing Council (IGC), appointed by U.S. officials and representative of Iraq's ethnic and religious groups, spent weeks arguing over the document's subjects. An agreement was reached March 1, but final approval was postponed due to a series of terror bombings that killed some 180 Shiites attending religious ceremonies in Baghdad and last minute objections to certain parts of the text by five Shiite IGC members. Their objections revealed concerns raised by Iraq's most powerful Shiite priest, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. On March 7, he approved of the constitution, and the signing ceremony took place the next day.
Iraqi Constitution Created
The 62-article document signed March 8 was designed to provide a type structure for the country's temporary government until elections could be held and a permanent constitution written. The document required that an election for a national assembly must happen by January 31, 2005. It also contained a kind of bill of rights and established Islam as Iraq's official religion. There was also many difficult questions facing the new nation, as in who will run the government after June 30, 2004, when the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) returns sovereignty to Iraq. It was more like a set of procedures then an enforceable legal document. The 25-member Iraqi Governing Council (IGC), appointed by U.S. officials and representative of Iraq's ethnic and religious groups, spent weeks arguing over the document's subjects. An agreement was reached March 1, but final approval was postponed due to a series of terror bombings that killed some 180 Shiites attending religious ceremonies in Baghdad and last minute objections to certain parts of the text by five Shiite IGC members. Their objections revealed concerns raised by Iraq's most powerful Shiite priest, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. On March 7, he approved of the constitution, and the signing ceremony took place the next day.