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The stadium is packed,
the speakers are blaring and legendary pop star
Zakaria is bouncing around on stage, revving up the
crowd with the hits that have made him a hero for
local Iraqi Kurds. But when he pauses for some
trademark audience participation, it becomes clear
the star has not been flown in from his home in
Sweden to shift CDs.
Instead of rousing fans to sing along to his
anthems, Zakaria has other numbers for them.
"Seven-three-zero, seven-three-zero," he chants. The
figure 730 is the official number assigned to the
Kurdistan Alliance for this week's elections, the
first under the new constitution ratified in
October, and a landmark moment in Iraq's transition
to democracy. The concert is part of an urgent
last-minute push by Kurdish leaders to get
increasingly disgruntled voters to turn out, the
last steps towards democracy in Iraq: installing a
full-time parliament and government in Baghdad.
With less than a week to go, there are fears young
Kurds will snub the polls in protest at corruption,
poor services and lack of jobs and housing in their
northern self-rule region. In the January polls, the
alliance won 77 seats, making Kurds the
second-largest bloc in parliament. But this time
round the number of Kurdish seats is expected to
shrink as Sunni Arabs vote en masse for the first
time.
Against this backdrop, every last Kurdish vote will
be crucial to maintaining influence and
representation in Baghdad. Party leaders say they
will be happy with anything above 50 MPs.
"Kurdistan is a young society; the vote of people
under 30 is vital for us so we can achieve our goals
in Baghdad," said Kosrat Rasoul, head of the
alliance's election campaign and a senior Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader. Kurds would work to
secure a "democratic, federal, pluralist Iraq", he
said.
Kurdish politicians have criss-crossed their
mountainous homeland, hosting youth forums,
appearing on talkshows and announcing projects to
revive the education system. But it may be too
little too late. The last few months have seen
street protests and student strikes across Iraqi
Kurdistan. Protesters have railed at everything from
lack of electricity and fresh water in student dorms
to corruption among local officials, spiralling
housing costs and the control on daily life
exercised by the two parties.
The Kurds, who make up about 20% of the Iraqi
population, have a lot at stake. They have enjoyed a
period of peace and relative prosperity that Iraqis
elsewhere have come to envy. Roads and hospitals are
being built. The cities of Irbil and Sulaimaniya
boast new international airports. Hotels are packed
with visiting businessmen.
But a poor showing at the polls could see Kurdish
leaders losing the powerful political leverage they
have wielded in Baghdad since the fall of Saddam
Hussein. That could endanger plans to put as much
distance as possible between the Kurdistan region
and central government, as well as jeopardise
ambitions to include the contested oil-rich city of
Kirkuk within their federal entity.
But for many young Kurds such "national" issues take
second place to the growing dissatisfaction with the
way their region - free from Baghdad's control since
1991 - is being governed.
"I will not vote. I want independence for Kurdistan
but I am fed up with the dominance of the two
parties," Shirwan Abdul Aziz, a 20-year-old student
of English at Sulaimaniya University, said,
referring to the main alliance groupings. "They play
with our future and make lots of money in Baghdad,
but they can't even provide more than a few hours'
electricity a day for our people." His view was
typical of many young Kurds who spoke to the
Guardian.
"Even a small boycott could hurt us, but I think
despite the complaints, many of which are
legitimate, most will realise that it is in their
interest to vote," said Barham Salih, Iraq's
planning minister and a PUK member. As a sweetener
yesterday, plans for an American university in
Sulaimaniya were unveiled by Iraq's Kurdish
president, Jalal Talabani.
"The youth are fed up. They feel they have no room
to breathe," said Stran Abdullah, editor of Aso
(Horizon) newspaper which is published in
Sulaimaniya. "There are lots of media outlets but
few independent voices; all are controlled by
political parties," he said. "To get a job, or to
get promotion once you get that job, or even to play
sport at a decent club, you need to express loyalty
to a political party."
There is a yawning gap, he said, between the "ageing
men" who fought the regime heroically in the
mountains and who are now running the region, and
those young adults who have grown up without the
spectre of Saddam and "who expect efficient
transparent government, not from Baghdad but from
their own leaders".
www.guardian.co.uk
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