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Letter to the Kurdish leadership. Give power
back to the Kurdish Parliament
After the election last January, the Kurdish people
came out of the election with a feeling of power and
unity. All Kurds had hope for a new unity between
the two main Kurdish parties KDP & PUK, as
demonstrated by the united list the two parties
entered into for the Iraqi election and the
Kurdistan election.
In the Iraqi election the outcome presented the
Kurds with more power in the central government than
any previous time in our history and for the first
time in the history of Iraq a Kurd was chosen as
President of Iraq. This presidency did not come by
chance rather was due to the blood of our brave
Peshmerga, the wisdom of the Kurdish leaderships to
unify the two main parties, and the support of all
Kurdish people everywhere in the Iraqi election
where the Kurdish list was allocated 77 seats in the
Iraqi parliament. In addition, the new Iraqi
government has a Kurdish deputy Prime Minister and
eight Ministers.
Furthermore, in Kurdistan the unified list won all
of the seats during the election for Kurdish
parliament. Again, this was a great accomplishment
and an important demonstration of unity between the
two main Kurdish parties. The results of the Kurdish
parliamentary elections resulted in forming a new
parliament with a number of fresh new voices. We
have held hope that parliament would move very
quickly to elect a President of the Kurdistan state
and move swiftly to unify the two regional
administrations and form a new united Kurdish
government.
Given the feeling of unity and pride felt by all
Kurds following these recent elections, we were very
disappointed to hear the recent news coming out of
Kurdistan regarding the disagreements or different
point of views between the two parties on how the
President of the Kurdistan should be elected. It has
been reported that KDP prefers a direct election of
the president by the people while PUK prefers an
election by parliament. Furthermore, the role of the
Vice President, the power allocated to the President
and the term of the Presidency seems to be under
much dispute as well.
We are disappointed that after 13 years of having a
Parliament we did not write clearly in the
constitution the method for electing a President.
Nor has the power or responsibility of the president
been defined. These omissions demonstrate how
democracy in Kurdistan is still in its infancy stage
and not progressing at an adequate pace and how
there is much work to be done in improving democracy
in Kurdistan.
Although it is unfortunate that these issues had not
been discussed in the past, we should use this as an
opportunity to start a new tradition of democracy in
the Kurdish Parliament.
These important issues on the role, term and process
of election of the Kurdish President should be open
to free public debate in the Kurdish Parliament.
We believe it would be very healthy for the
burgeoning Kurdish democracy and parliament if the
two parties submitted their proposals to the Kurdish
parliament to be discussed freely. Let us for once
make sure that the parliament truly represents the
people and is not just a rubber stamp for the
political parties. It is time to give the power back
to the Kurdish people and their elected Parliament.
Let the Parliament decide on the power distribution
between, Executive, Legislative and Judiciary
branches.
Regarding the role of the Vice President, most world
democratic countries have a Vice President from the
same ruling party as the President (Iraq being one
exception). We were disappointed to see that this is
being made an issue since it serves the political
parties and not the Kurdish people.
Regarding the role of the President, the negotiators
should remember that no matter what rules are set up
for the new President by the parliament; these rules
also apply to the next President too. We should
trust in each other and in the power of the people
to choose a new President. With a strong
constitution and elections, we can give the new
President a chance to see how he will handle this
constitutional responsibility. Let us put our nation
first instead of political parties and personal
gains. Let us have a strong opposition to monitor
the President and the Government to see how they
handle their powers. Let us have a true democracy to
be model for Iraq and the Middle East to follow.
Last week the new Iraqi Government was sworn in but
a reference to federalism that had been removed from
the original text angered the Kurdish leadership
where they demanded that the Iraqi Government take a
second oath and reinsert the original text, where
clearly reference to federalism or there will be a
serious threat for alliance between the Shiite and
the Kurd.
Original text:
"I swear before God the Almighty to preserve Iraq’s
independence, the interest of its people, its
sovereignty, its waters and its natural resources as
well as its democratic and federal system, and
implement the law earnestly and fairly,"
This show of unity among the Kurds, forced the Iraqi
Government to pay attention to their demand and they
did take the second oath where the original text was
written and the Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari was
the first to take the oath again, his hand on the
Koran. This example of strength comes with support
of the Kurdish people when they rally behind a
strong leadership.
We are calling on the Kurdish leaderships to stay
united in their commitment to democracy and to the
Kurdish people but to engage in open and public
debate on these important unresolved issues. Our
accomplishments, democracy, and aspirations can be
endangered too easily by our own misgiving. How can
we ask for the city of Kirkuk to be united under a
Kurdistan region while we cannot agree on having one
strong leader with the power to fight for our
rights? We do not want symbolic President. We want a
President with true constitutional rights and strong
mandate to represent the Kurdish people.
The Kurdish National Congress of North America
P.O. Box 1663, P.O. Box 7033,
Lake Forest, CA 92630 Windsor, ONT Tel/Fax:
949-583-1417
USA N9A 2N9, CANADA
www.kncna.org.
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