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IRBIL,
Iraq (AP) Kurdish leaders from rival factions in
northern Iraq have united in hopes of winning a
large bloc of seats in Sunday's National Assembly
vote and say they will insist that either the
presidency or the prime minister's job goes to a
Kurd.
The two top positions in Iraq's interim government
are currently held by a Shiite Muslim and a Sunni
Arab, the country's two largest communities.
But observers say the presidency a largely
ceremonial post that will be chosen by the 275-seat
assembly could go to a Kurd, possibly Jalal Talabani,
leader of one of the two major Kurdish groups. His
rival, Massoud Barzani, who heads the Kurdistan
Democratic Party, appears to have given his consent.
The two rivals, who have run the Kurdish north in
separate fiefdoms the last 14 years, have put aside
their decades-long differences in favor of a common
goal: to ensure their demand for a federal state is
enshrined in the constitution that will be drafted
by the National Assembly this year.
The two factions are running as a coalition on the
same ticket in Sunday's vote for the National
Assembly. The alliance is made necessary, Kurdish
leaders say, to make certain Kurds will have a voice
in uncertain times.
''This time we agreed to be on one list in order to
guarantee our rights in Baghdad,'' said Mohammed
Khalil Shakhawan, an official from Talabani's
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
Ordinary Kurds are relieved. The bloody rivalry
between the two parties in the 1990s cost thousands
of lives on both sides and hundreds are still
unaccounted for.
''No contest is good,'' said Sabah Saleh, 37, who
owns a shop that sells cassette tapes. ''We
witnessed too much bloodshed.''
Though Kurds will have only one bloc to vote for in
the assembly election, there is enthusiasm among
voters who are eager to use the ballot to reverse
years of oppression by Saddam Hussein's regime.
Kurds, however, are less eager to cast ballots in
the separate vote Sunday for an 111-seat Kurdish
parliament to govern their autonomous region that
stretches over the northern provinces of Irbil,
Sulaimaniyah and Dohuk. The two main parties are
again running on the same ticket in that ballot, and
many people feel the distribution of seats has
already been decided and their votes will matter
little.
The various parties which include Islamic,
socialist, communist and nationalist groups hope
most of the estimated 2 million eligible voters in
Iraq's three Kurdish provinces will vote Sunday.
Nearly 1,600 polling stations have been set up in
Irbil province. The two main parties plan to bus
voters in from remote villages in the snowy
mountains.
Kurdish party officials said they will accept
nothing less than one of the two top government
posts in Baghdad.
''If we are going to be considered full citizens, it
is natural to be a president or prime minister, to
have a high ranking post,'' said Sefin Dizayee, a
senior KDP official.
He said Kurds, the United States' closest allies in
Iraq, were disappointed with the allocation of posts
in the Iraqi interim government that was formed in
June. The U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority,
or CPA, gave the premiership to a member of Iraq's
majority Shiite Muslim community. The presidency
went to a Sunni Arab.
Kurdish complaints were met with calls from the
Americans to be patient.
''Because of the sensitive situation, the CPA asked
us not to push for it and to be more understanding.
This is what we did,'' Dizayee said.
But officials from the two Kurdish factions said
they will pursue one of the top posts this time.
However, some ordinary Kurds expressed reservations
about a Kurd occupying a top post, fearing an Arab
backlash.
''Arabs won't accept it. They are the majority,''
said Saleh, the shop owner.
''We've suffered a lot. We don't want problems with
the Arabs,'' said Aziz Doski, a 28-year-old PUK
militiaman.
AP
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