Reuters reports that Iraq's Sunni Arab community must choose to rally behind a Shi'ite-Kurdish draft constitution within 72 hours, or try to defeat it at a referendum in October.
If two thirds of voters in three or more of Iraq's 18 provinces vote "No" in the referendum, the draft constitution is rejected.
So the question is will enough Sunnis register to vote so that rejection is a viable threat. Or will the Sunni community repeat the of last January by not participating in the elections.
According to Reuters, Sunni leaders hope to be able to convince some Shi'ites to join them in voting "No:"
"We will not be silent," Soha Allawi, a Sunni Arab member of the constitution drafting committee, told Reuters on Monday.
"We will campaign for public awareness to tell both Sunnis and Shi'ites to reject the constitution, which has elements that will lead to the break-up of Iraq and civil war."
At Fruits and Votes, Professor Matthew Shugart analyzes whether the Sunnis would be able to cause the constitution to be rejected. Unlike most of the main stream media, Professor Shugart concludes that it's not a certainty that the Sunnis could reject the constitution.
At PoliBlog, Steven Taylor asks whether the constitution should be installed over the objections of the Sunnis.
Steven has a good point. But is truly hard to resist the temptation to simply say they made their bed, let them lie in it.
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