Stafford writes that the updated table herewith corrects the total number of seats which is based on one seat per 100,000 population for a highly questionable total population of 32,300,000.

According to Stafford: Given obvious migrations into the Kurdistan Region since 2003 by returnees and those fleeing violence from other parts of the country since 2005, it is difficult to accept that such population increases are not reflected in a higher number of seats. Governorate (provincial) population increases in the total (unrealistic) figure of 32.3 million are questionably allocated largely among governorates outside the Region.

The last official figures with some semblance of official international certification were governorate figures listed in the December 2002 Distribution Plan for the UN-managed oil-for-food program. For certain parts of the country, however, these figure were estimated to have been inflated by as much as 3 million.

London working group meeting on Iraq. For further information contact ncfpeace@aol.com

NCF / KRG meeting at the conservative party conference

The report attached is the final report on Iraq’s January 2009 Provincial Elections, which is a matter of public record published by the Next Century Foundation.

Iraq's local elections, which saw mass Sunni and Shiite participation, were hailed a major success in both security terms and in terms of the smooth running of the election process. There were no official reports of any violence by the sectarian militias or any terrorist groups, which is of itself an important breakthrough for both Iraq's internal security and as well as Iraq's fragile democracy.

Much of the media coverage on Iraq has concentrated on al-Maliki's victory in last weekend's provincial elections. The BBC speaks of tentative first steps towards a stable democracy, while others concentrate on voter turnout and al-Maliki's ties to the former Bush administration.

To provide an objective appraisal of the electoral issues in Iraq in anticipation of the forthcoming provincial local elections.

Specifically:

• Assessing the KRG position towards the current political configuration in Iraq and the effect the tension between the Kurds and the central government will have on the local elections.

The Next Century Foundation will send a delegation to Iraq to examine electoral isues. Delegates will include Ambassador Mark G Hambley and Mr William Morris

Two hour working group meeting on Iraq with Mr Mithal Aloussi MP