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Claim and Counterclaim in Kirkuk
18.3.2010
By Yaseen Taha |
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March
18, 2010
KIRKUK, Iraq's border with Kurdistan region,
— The preliminary results declared by the Elections
Commission came as a big surprise in Kirkuk, the
control of which is disputed by Arabs, Kurds and
Turkmen.
Contrary to all predictions, and after counting
nearly 70 percent of votes in Karuk, the Commission
officially declared that the Iraqiya List,
consisting of the city’s Arabs and Turkmen, leads
the Kurdistan Coalition List, which is comprised of
the two largest parties: the Kurdistan Democratic
Party and and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.
According to these results, Iraqiya won 137,158
votes with the Kurdistan Coalition just 262 votes
behind with 136,896.
Voting is so close, it is possible that seats will
be divided evenly between the two coalitions, with
each taking six of the governorate’s 12 seats.
Kurds have not yet recognised the election results
in Kirkuk and the Kurdistan Coalition’s candidate
there, Khaled Shawani, accused the Iraqiya of
vote-rigging and fraud, demanding the cancellation
by the commission of Iraqiya’s votes won through the
alleged fraud. |
Kirkuk city is historically a Kurdish city and it
lies just south border of the Kurdistan autonomous
region, Kurds have a strong cultural and emotional
attachment to Kirkuk, which they call "the Kurdish
Jerusalem." Kurds see it as the rightful and
perfect capital of an autonomous Kurdistan state.
The former regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
had forced over 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up
their homes to Arabs in the 1970s, to "Arabize" the
city and the region's oil industry. |
Shawani said that loudspeakers of mosques were used
to encourage people to vote and added that the
turnout in al-Zab, al-Abbasi, al-Riad sub-districts
and al-Houija District reached 93 percent, which he
found unbelievable. The irregularities he pointed to
all favoured Iraqiya.
Ala Talabani, another Kurdistan Coalition candidate
in Kirkuk said that by 16 March her list had
submitted more than 40 notices of appeal against
instances of fraud committed by the Iraqiya to the
Elections Commission.
“We will not be silent about the fraud committed by
the Iraqiya and we will keep submitting appeals and
lodge complaints against it to the Commission,” she
promised, continuing: “I am certain that many
Iraqiya votes will be cancelled because of the
irregularities and we will come first in the
remaining ballots that were not counted.”
However, 141 members of the press watched the
elections in Kirkuk on 7 March and nearly 2,000
local and international elections monitors from the
UN, the American and Turkish embassies and a British
NGO observed polling in 230 polling stations.
Turnout in Kirkuk reached 73 percent.
Iraqiya counter-accused its Kurdish opponents of
fraud. Arshid Al-Salihi, a Turkmen candidate for
Iraqiya, said:
“Iraqiya has proof that a number of ballots cast in
favour of Iraqiya were thrown away in the garbage.
We have managed to record these instances and lodged
a complaint to the Commission in Baghdad.”
Al-Salihi, who won the highest number of votes in
the List according to the preliminary results
(38,690 votes), added: “Any candidate who will win
by fraud will be a useless MP in the next
parliament.”
Firhad Talbani, a representative of the Electoral
Commission, who has run the Kirkuk branch since
October 2005, said that the Commission has specific
ground rules to administer the election process and
he pointed out that each entity taking part in the
elections has had 42 hours after the closing of
ballot boxes to submit appeals.
“According to the information we obtained the voting
rate in Arab areas were high and anyone complaining
about that can submit an appeal. We have registered
around 200 complaints and all these complaints were
referred to the Commission's Head Office in Baghdad
in order to conduct the necessary investigations and
take the appropriate measures.”
Voting in Kirkuk became the focus of attention
inside and outside Iraq since this governorate has
the largest oil reserves in the world, in addition
of being one of the key areas disputed between
Baghdad and Kurdistan Region. It is the center of
the political conflict between Kurds and Arabs and
the Kurdistan Coalition List demands the cessation
of the governorate to the Kurdistan Region while
Arabs and Turkmen insist that it remains under the
control of the central government in Baghdad.
In this election, for the first time, Kurdish lists
were not united, with the Change Movement (Goran)
competing with the Kurdish Coalition for Kurdish
votes. The Kurdistan Coalition lost over 45,000
votes to other Kurdish lists. Goran took nearly
23,000 votes,www.ekurd.netwhile
the Kurdish Islamic Union took a further 17,000.
Neither party, however, reached the electoral
threshold, a portion of the total votes required for
a list or party to win a seat.
“These votes are lost to the Kurdish cause,”
complained Ala Talabani. “They will not be counted
and were it not for these votes, we would have been
comfortably in first position.”
Awat Mohammed Amin, the Change List’s president,
refuted Talabani’s claims that his list was
responsible for a Kurdish defeat in Kirkuk.
“I refute the claim that smaller parties in Kirkuk
caused Iraqiya’s victory,” he argued. “28 entities
competed in Kirkuk and only five were Kurdish.
Iraqiya stood against 21 Arab and Turkmen rivals.
There are also no guarantees that the Kurdistan
Coalition would have won the votes my party took.”
Nonetheless, in contrast to the Change Movement’s
standpoint, the Kurdish Islamic Union withdrew the
30 appeals it submitted to the Elections Commission
to avoid taking more votes away from the Kurdistan
Coalition.
“Our purpose was to maintain the percentage achieved
by the Kurds,” explained Rebwar Sayed Cole, a
representative of the Kurdish Islamic Union.
“We in Kirkuk suffer from national problems and also
problems related to our administrative borders. We
need to take a unified stand and leave party
interests aside.”
Arabs in Kirkuk believe that their success at the
polls was down to effective mobilisation of their
votes, with no question of any vote-rigging. All the
prominent Arab figures competing in the governorate
united behind the Iraqiya list and actively promoted
its national program, which advocates keeping Kirkuk
under the administration of the central government
in Baghdad.
“Everyone who loses in elections accuses their
rivals of fraud,” said Irshad Al-Salihi, an Iraqiya
candidate. He continued to explain what he thought
were the real reasons for his list’s success in
Kirkuk.
“We underlined the principle of coexistence, peace
and patriotism and that is why we got such broad
support in Kirkuk.”
With around 800,000 votes being counted in Kirkuk,
people continue to await the final results
impatiently, not least the 499 candidates competing.
Votes from overseas and other special votes continue
to be counted. Claim and counter-claim will continue
for some time, particularly with the stakes so high
in the governorate.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
niqash org
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