Iraqi PM discusses preparations for general population census in 2020

BAGHDAD, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi on Wednesday discussed preparations for general population census scheduled for autumn 2020, Abdul Mahdi's office said.

A statement by his office said that the meeting, which was chaired by Abdul Mahdi, was attended by officials of Supreme Council for Population and several ministers, including the ministers of finance, planning and migration and displacement, in addition to the planning minister of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.

Abdul Mahdi said that "the census is an important step that deserves great attention and preparations at the highest level and cooperation among all to achieve the desired success."

The last census was held in 1997 in Iraq except for Kurdistan's three provinces of Sulaymaniyah, Erbil and Duhok.

The population census in Iraq has been hampered for political reasons amid intense disagreements between Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government.

The ethnic Kurds consider the northern oil-rich province of Kirkuk and parts of Nineveh, Diyala and Salahudin provinces as disputed areas and want them to be incorporated into their region, a move fiercely opposed by the Arabs, Turkomans and the Baghdad government.

The article 140 of Iraq's 2005 constitution calls for several steps to address the dispute over the ethically-mixed disputed areas, including census and referendum.

However, problems raised among the conflicting ethnicities, as Arabs and Turkomans accuse the Kurds of carrying out demographic change in the disputed areas, including the oil-rich province of Kirkuk in the years after 2003.

While the Kurds are accusing Saddam Hussein's regime of displacing thousands of Kurds who were replaced with Arabs to make Kirkuk a predominantly Arab province. Enditem