Iraq elections explained

Aljazeera.Net - Iraq elections explained:

"The people of Iraq will be voting for a Transitional National Assembly comprised of 275 members....

...every third candidate in the list will be female.

All candidates must be over the age of 30...

Seats will be allocated by a system of exact proportional representation, meaning that each party or grouping will get the same proportion of seats in the assembly as it gets for its list in the popular vote.

An election for the autonomous Kurdish parliament in the north will take place on the same day as the nationwide poll, as will elections to local assemblies for each Iraqi province........

...groups with militias - such as Muqtada al-Sadr and his al-Mahdi Army - have been formally banned from running in the election.

The assembly will be able to choose Iraq's government and will have the power to enact laws. Its first duty will be to elect a president and two deputies, who in turn will choose a prime minister, also from the assembly.

The prime minister will be the main figure of authority, exercising power over the armed forces, for example...

The other primary role of the assembly is to draw up a draft constitution by 15 August 2005 and submit this to a referendum by 15 October 2005.

When the constitution is approved, elections will be held by 15 December 2005 and a fully constitutional government will assume power by 31 December 2005.

If the constitution is rejected there will be new assembly elections by 15 December 2005, with a third year then allocated for the entire process.

There is also provision for a delay of six months if insufficient progress is made on the constitution by 1 August 2005."