In 2005, Iraqis voted for lists belonging to political parties, not individual candidates [GALLO/GETTY]

Their warnings came after a special session of parliament failed to adopt a new draft law on Wednesday.

The 2005 election law allowed Iraqis to choose political lists which ran on different nationalist and religious platforms, rather than vote for individual candidates.

Hoping to lure more Iraqis into the political process, the parliament drafted - and approved - a new election law last July, which scrapped voting-for-lists and instituted the traditional one-vote, one-candidate system. 

But the Kurdish bloc in the parliament immediately rejected the new election law, saying it did not meet their demands with regards to the disputed oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk.

The new law would have divided Kirkuk's provincial governing council into three main representative ethnicities - Kurd, Arab and Turkmen. The governing council would then determine whether a referendum on Kirkuk's future should be held.

Currently, Kurds form the majority on Kirkuk's provincial governing council.

Though the parliament approved the law, the presidential council - headed by Jalal Talabani, the president, who is also a Kurd - rejected it the following day.

MPs have accused the president of stalling the political process.

Civil disobedience

Salih al-Mutlag, the head of the Arab Bloc for National Dialogue in parliament, threatened civil disobedience if the 2005 elections law remains in use.

"The election law of 2005 is simply daylight robbery of Iraqi votes. If it is reused, we will boycott the coming elections and start a civil disobedience campaign throughout the country," he told Al Jazeera.

"We call on President Talabani to respect the will of the Iraqi people and approve the new elections law."

Al-Mutlag's statements came after reports indicated that the government would be forced to re-use the 2005 election law if parliament fails to agree on an amendment.

This was confirmed by Nouri al-Talabani, an MP in Iraqi Kurdistan's parliament.

He said: "I oppose the closed-list technique, however, what happened in 2005 was not because the law was inefficient, but it was because of the lack of experience, we should not forget that it was the first democratic election Iraqis had ever had in a very long time."

"I am confident that even if the old system is used once again, the application would be more successful because we gained some experience in democracy," al-Talabani, who is also the former head of Kurdistan's election committee, said.

Blaming the president

Talabani is accused of taking sides

But Mohamed al-Dayni, an independent MP, insists there is no alternative to passing the new elections law.

"Today, there is a powerful group in the parliament called the July 22 force. This force will represent the will of the people and it cannot be stopped from winning Iraqis' rights to just and transparent elections," he said.

The July 22 bloc is a group of 128 MPs who voted for the new elections law on July 22, 2008.

Al-Dayni also blamed Jalal Talabani, the president, for "acting as a Kurdish party member, instead of fulfilling his role as an Iraqi president." 

But Kurdish MP al-Talabani rejected the charge.

"I do not think it is appropriate to say the president was acting as a Kurd," he said.

"His vice president Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni Arab, did reject many things in the past; we did not accuse him of being sectarian, knowing that the other vice president Adil Abd al-Mahdi, a Shia Arab, also rejected the new election law."

Izz al-Din al-Dawla, an independent MP and member of the July 22 bloc, pointed out that there were irregularities in how the new elections law had been rejected by the presidential council.

"When the presidential council rejected the new law, it had not yet left the parliament's chambers. This means it was rejected on hearsay, which is an illegal action according to parliamentary law," al-Dawla said.

Powder-keg: Kirkuk

Kirkuk's Arabs and Turkmen demonstrated against de Mistura's proposal

At the heart of the new elections law debate is the northern, oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

The Kurds want to have Kirkuk integrated into an autonomous Kurdish region.

They say historically, they have been the majority in the city, until an Arabisation drive by the government of Saddam Hussein tipped the balance.

The Kurdistan Regional Government, based in Arbil, 400km north of Baghdad, has been seeking a referendum on the future status of the city.

Kirkuk's Arabs and Turkmen, however, deny that the Kurdish community is the majority and are working to keep the city within a "united Iraq".

Elections were to be held in Kirkuk earlier this year, but have been postponed twice, partly due to an increase in ethnic tension and violence in the city.

There are also fears that unless the Kurds, Turkmen and Arabs of Kirkuk reach compromise under the new elections law, the standstill could boil over into a much-feared civil war.

Stephen de Mistura, the UN special representative in Iraq has called for Kirkuk's elections to be postponed while the remaining 17 Iraqi provinces go to the polls.

Kurds supported de Mistura's proposal, but an impromptu Arab-Turkmen coalition responded with demonstrations calling for his removal; they say the elections should be held as scheduled.

Iraq's parliament is expected to resume deliberations on the election law on September 18.