News services are currently reporting:
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Several members of the committee drafting Iraq’s constitution said Monday they had agreed to seek a 10-day extension to the Aug. 15 deadline to try to complete negotiations over the highly contested charter.
According to Juan Cole, posting a short time ago, this is illegal:
Every indication is that a final text of Iraq’s permanent constitution
just won’t be reported out of the drafting committee in time to have
parliament vote on it on Monday. Now Iraqi politicians are talking
about having parliament amend the interim constitution to allow a delay
of say, two weeks. In fact, according to the Transitional
Administrative Law, if the committee did not ask for an extension by
August 1 (which it was pressured not to do by the Bush administration);
and if the parliament did not approve the new constitution by August
15; then parliament should be dissolved.
UPDATE: AP now reporting Iraqi parliament voted "unanimously" to delay constitution deadline by 7 days….