10/25/2005: Iraqis have officially ratified their new constitution amidst cries of vote rigging. Electoral Commission officials told a news conference 78 percent of voters backed the charter. Two provinces voted heavily "No" -- 96 percent in Al-Anbar and 81 percent in Salahaddin. A third, "swing", province of Nineveh, voted by only 55 percent against the constitution, short of a two-thirds majority.
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10/17/2005: "Abdul Hussein al-Hindawi, a senior member of Iraq's Independent Election Commission, said he was unhappy with early reports of a "yes" victory.... Hindawi said he had been 'surprised' by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's brief forecast Sunday of voters' approval, saying: 'As far as I know, she's not a member of the electoral commission.' "
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10/16/2005: Iraqi voters have probably approved a new U.S.-backed constitution. Anbar and Salahaddin provinces look likely to return blocking "No" votes, but it looks unlikely that a third province will reach the 66% threshold needed to prevent the constitution's confirmation. The majority of Ninevah province is Sunni Arab and it could be province number 3 to reject the constitution, although that looks unlikely. Juan Cole writes: "If the Sunni Arabs reject the constitution virtually en masse in this referendum, it will severely bring into question the legitimacy of this national charter. Its passage, under these conditions, seems a guarantee of ongoing guerrilla warfare against the new order, and possibly a partition of the country."
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On October 15th, 2005, Iraq held a referendum on its future constitution. Turnout in Iraq's constitutional referendum may have crossed 10 million voters, or nearly two thirds of those registered, a member of Iraq's Electoral Commission said after polls closed. Sunni Arabs voted in surprisingly high numbers, many of them hoping to defeat it in an intense competition with Shia and Kurds. The constitution will be approved if a majority of voters nationwide vote "yes" and there are no more than two governorates (of the country's 18) where two-thirds of the voters vote "no". On October 13th, thousands of Iraqi detainees were "allowed" to vote early at prisons such as the notorious Abu Ghraib detention centre..
| Baghdad Burning: The Referendum... | Wikipedia: Proposed Iraqi constitution | Iraqi constitution ratification vote, 2005

10/13/2005: Many Baghdad residents are uninformed about the upcoming constitutional referendum because of failed public awareness campaigns and dire living conditions that are breeding apathy. The International Crisis Group has criticized what it termed "Iraq's rushed constitutional process”, saying it has deepened ethnic and sectarian rifts and is likely to worsen the "insurgency" and hasten the country's violent break-up. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani and Lebanon's top Shia cleric have endorsed the Constitution, but there is widespread opposition among many Sunnis, Turkomen, women and supporters of Moqtada Sadr.

Sunni parties are divided over the referendum. While the largest Sunni political group, the Association of Muslim Scholars has come out against the proposed constitution, the Iraqi Islamic Party has endorsed the draft constitution on condition that the parliament review possible amendments four months after the December 15th parliamentary election. Tribal leaders from Iraq's Sunni Arab minority have expressed optimism that they can mobilize their communities to reject the draft constitution.
After weeks of condemning the US-vetted draft constitution, Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has refused to call on his hundreds of thousands of supporters to vote no in the referendum in Iraq. Instead, as he did in the lead-up to the elections in January, Sadr has taken an abstentionist position.
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Many women in Iraq worry that the new Constitution will be a setback for their rights and allow discriminatory laws against women that have not existed in Iraq for decades. In the 1970s, Iraq was probably the most progressive Arab country on women’s issues (although women later lost some ground under Saddam Hussein). The Jan. 30, 2005, elections brought to power the Shia fundamentalist parties that had long sought to overthrow secular rule. They dominated the drafting of the new constitution. Article 2 therefore says that Islamic law is “a fundamental source” of legislation.
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Riverbend On The Iraqi Constitution: |

In late September, the parliament decided to change this process by identifying "voter" in two different ways to make it impossible for the Constitution to be rejected. Following concern by UN officials and anger by many Sunnis, the changes were reversed.