|
The mood was festive as
Kurds queued to vote in their regional capital,
Irbil, and other towns and villages that make up the
three provinces of Iraq's Kurdistan region.
For many, it was obviously a special occasion, so
many of the men turned out in their traditional
baggy trousers and cummerbunds, and women in bright,
spangled dresses.
Many came as families, with small children also
smartly dressed.
For many, this was an act of Kurdish national
assertion, claiming what they see as their rightful
stake in Iraq's federal parliament, and leaving
aside the bad old days when they were an oppressed
minority with second-class status.
"We've come to stand up as Kurds, and to make sure
we get more seats in Parliament," said one woman
voter.
"It's very important for us, we have suffered and
sacrificed a lot and we want to assert ourselves
among other peoples.
We were treated very badly in the past, and we want
our lives to get better and better."
"I'm voting today because it's for the future of the
Kurds. This election is very important and
different, it is fateful," said another voter.
"We're voting for a democratic, federal Iraq where
the Kurds get their rights.
We hope this will bring us further along the road to
independence."
Young vote
Many young voters seemed to have turned out, despite
much criticism of the two big parties which rule
Iraqi Kurdistan.
"Of course young people complain about things,
because there isn't much for us," said one.
"We want to have the things we don't have, and hope
this election will help.
We hope our leaders will keep the promises they've
given us."
While most Kurds aspire to outright independence,
the federal arrangement that these full-term
elections will consecrate has given them a lot.
The Iraqi President in the outgoing transitional
administration, Jalal Talabani, is a Kurd.
Other prominent Kurds in Baghdad include the Foreign
Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, and the Planning Minister,
Barham Salih.
The Kurds will be pressing for similar high posts in
the lengthy wrangling over the new government that
will follow the elections.
Second largest faction
The Kurdistan region is sure of getting at least 35
seats in the new Iraqi national assembly, since that
is the number allocated to the region's three
provinces under the proportional representation
system Iraq has adopted.
But the Kurds are hoping to bolster that share by
picking up extra seats in other places where there
is a strong Kurdish presence, especially in the
nearby areas around the cities of Kirkuk and Mosul
where they are competing with other strong
minorities, including Sunni Arabs and Turkomans.
Kurdish leaders will be pleased if they can garner a
total of 50-55 seats, which would probably make them
the second largest faction in parliament after the
big Shiite coalition.
The two major Kurdish parties which dominate the
region's politics, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)
and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have
teamed up with one another and a group of smaller
factions to form a single Kurdistan Alliance for the
national poll.
Broken promises
The Alliance is not monolithically Kurdish, although
Kurds form the majority in the region.
The Alliance parties contain elements and
individuals from non-Kurdish minorities such as the
Turkomans, Assyrians and Chaldaean Christians.
But Kurdish voters were given a ballot paper with 16
possible choices which included mainly small
minority parties, but also the Islamic Union of
Kurdistan (IUK), which was part of the Alliance in
the January transitional elections but decided to
split off this time.
A man sprayed with artificial snow waves a Kurdistan
flag as he hangs through the window of a car during
an election campaign rally at central Irbil, Iraq
Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2005
The mood was festive on the eve of voting in Irbil
The IUK was hoping to capitalise on the
disappointment that many ordinary Kurds in the
street have expressed in the two big parties, the
PUK and the KDP, which are accused of failing to
deliver on previous election promises.
The two parties have split the Kurdistan region
between them and have been running them under
separate administrations, despite frequent promises
of unification.
Since they are in charge, they are blamed for
unemployment, frequent breakdowns in electricity and
water supplies, and other daily life complaints, as
well as corruption, nepotism and cronyism.
They are also accused of dictatorial tendencies - a
charge which a series of violent attacks on Islamic
Union offices in the north-west of the region by
followers of the KDP on 6 December did nothing to
alleviate.
Treachery
The worst attack was on the IUK office in Dohuk,
which was smashed and set on fire by an angry mob.
Four people were killed, including an IUK candidate.
The violence spread to several nearby towns where
similar incidents occurred, although there were no
serious casualties.
"There is no excuse for what happened," said a
senior KDP official, denying that the attacks had
been planned or coordinated.
"We condemned the attack at the time, and we condemn
it again now," the KDP leader, Massoud Barzani, told
a pre-election news conference.
"An enquiry has been set up, and when its results
are known, the necessary action will be taken."
Some KDP elements had seen the IUK's defection from
the Kurdistan Alliance as treachery.
Although the IUK is committed to Kurdish autonomy
and to the Kurds' claim on the nearby oil-rich
region of Kirkuk, its Islamic identity is seen as
giving the Union common cause with Sunni Arab
militant Islamic factions further south which are
fiercely at odds with the Kurds.
In the Dohuk assault, the mob was demanding that the
Kurdistan flag be removed from the IUK office and
the Iraqi or Saudi flag put in its place.
So, although the region is assured of its 35 seats
and the Alliance will clearly predominate, there
will be much interest in how the IUK fares at the
polls.
www.unpo.org
Top |
® 