ERBIL, Kurdistan-Iraq, May 7,
2006,-- Kurdish lawmakers on Sunday voted for a single
administration to run their autonomous region of Kurdistan in
northern Iraq, ending the previous system of two separate local
governments.
"We now have one government for Kurdistan," said Adnan Mufti, the
speaker of the Kurdish parliament after the 111 parliamentarians
voted unanimously in favour of one administration.
Until now, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK) was solely responsible for running Sulaimaniyah
province, and Kurdish regional president Massoud Barzani's Kurdistan
Democratic Party (KDP) was running Arbil and Dohuk.
With Sunday's unanimous voting, the two administrations were merged
into one single administration and a new cabinet must now be formed.
Mufti said the new cabinet will have 27 ministers, with PUK and KDP
each having 11 ministers and the rest representing other smaller
parties.
A host of Iraqi leaders and international officials led by US
ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad were present for the voting
session of the Kurdish parliament Sunday.
"I pay homage to the sacrifices made by the Kurdish people, the
Iraqi people and the peshmerga to create a free state in Iraq
following the fall of Saddam Hussein's dictatorial regime,"
Khalilzad said.
Iraq's Shiite Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi called it a "historic
day, when Kurdistan gives us an example of unity and prosperity.
"To those who are afraid of a strong Kurdistan, I respond that if
Kurdistan is strong, Iraq is strong. If Kurdistan is united, Iraq is
united," he said.
It was still not clear whether the peshmerga forces of the two
administrations were to be merged or not, but the key ministries of
finance, interior and justice were to be unified.
On January 21, Talabani and Barzani had agreed to create a sole
administration for the entire Kurdistan, seen by many as paving the
way for an eventual autonomy for the region.
Since 1998, rivalries between the two formerly warring Kurdish
factions had prevented repeated attempts to set up a joint
administration.
The single administration is also expected to reaffirm Kurdish
territorial claims, especially for the ethnically mixed oil-hub of
Kirkuk that Kurds consider their own, which is located just south of
their autonomous region.
Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdish regional
government and nephew of Massoud Barzani, pledged that the united
administration would strengthen Kurdish interests.
"We are now going to work to be able to integrate into Kurdistan
those Kurdish territories which are not a part of it today," he
said.
Kurds, who make up around 20 percent of Iraq's population, are
estimated to number between 25 and 35 million people and are mostly
spread throughout Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq.
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