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Iraq's Kurdish Parties say protests will
fuel votes in Kurdistan
26.11.2011 |
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November 26, 2011
SULAIMANIYAH,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — The Arab Spring and
similar protests in Iraqi Kurdistan are expected to
influence the region’s upcoming election, party
representatives say.
No date has been set for the highly-anticipated
provincial election -- which will determine which
parties control local politics in the
semi-autonomous region -- and no reliable polls have
been conducted, but political parties are claiming
they’ve gained momentum since last spring, when
thousands of people gathered daily in Sulaimaniyah
to protest corruption and poor governance.
Mohammed Rahim, a leader in the Change Movement,
known in Kurdish as Gorran, said his party’s
popularity has grown following the protests which
were violently quashed by the authorities. Change is
the region’s largest opposition group.
“We have no doubt that the votes of the opposition
have increased, especially because the ruling
parties haven’t taken any steps to better
themselves. They’ve even gotten worse,” Rahim said.
During the protests which stretched from February to
April, at least 10 people -- mostly protesters but
also police officers -- were killed and dozens more
were injured and arrested.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) run by Iraqi
President Jalal Talabani is in charge of the local
administration and security forces in Sulaimaniyah
province, the largest of the Kurdistan Region’s
three governorates.
|
It Reads "Leave", a
message to Massoud Barzani. Thousands of Kurds
protest against Kurdistan gov't KRG at
Sulaimaniyah's Sara "Azady"
square for 62 days, The demonstrators opposed
Massoud Barzani, and the ruling Kurdistan Democratic
Party KDP and they demand Barzani to step down from
his position as president of Kurdistan. Photo: Karzan Kardozi |
Shaho Saeed, Gorran’s spokesman, said his group’s
popularity is on the rise. He pledged Change will
try to ensure the elections will be free and fair,
and that political parties won’t use government
resources to support their campaigns.
The Gorran movement holds 25 seats in Kurdistan’s
111-member Parliament.
Islamic parties are also upbeat about their
prospects in the provincial elections. Abdul-Sattar
Majid, a senior official at the Kurdistan Islamic
League, said his party will enter the elections
“with high morale.”
Majid said that although his party only gained three
seats in Sulaimaniyah in the 2005 provincial
elections, they are hoping for at least five seats
this time.
Gorran, the Islamic League and the Islamic Union are
Kurdistan’s three major opposition parties. They
were accused by the government of encouraging the
spring protests.
However, Omar Mohammed, the head of the Sulaimaniyah
branch of the Kurdistan Islamic Union, described his
party’s role in the Sulaimaniyah protests as an
“effective participation.”
“We can say the Islamic Union will have more weight
in the coming elections,” said Mohammed.
He said his party expects to gain around 20,000 to
25,000 votes.
Some observers believe that the newly-created Change
Movement won over some Islamic Union and Islamic
League supporters in the 2009 parliamentary
elections because the two Islamic parties had not
created a strong opposition and had allied with
secular parties.
An Islamic League official who spoke to Rudaw on
condition of anonymity said that Kurdistan’s Islamic
parties will gain popularity just as Islamic groups
are becoming influential in Tunisia, Egypt and
Libya.
In an earlier interview with Rudaw, Halo Penjweni, a
senior PUK official, said his party lost around
100,000 supporters -- most when the Change Movement
was formed -- but is now attracting more voters.
Change was born as a breakaway faction of the PUK.
“We believe we can perform better in Sulaimaniyah
this time around because the government has done
good work here in the past two years,” Penjweni
said.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is currently
headed by Prime Minister Barham Salih who is a
senior PUK official but power will likely be
transferred next years to the Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP), which is believed to be the largest
political party in Kurdistan. Parties in Kurdistan
do not publicly discuss their membership, making it
difficult to quantify.
KDP officials believe the way KRG Massoud Barzani
handled the protests and their aftermath has boosted
the party’s popularity. Barzani is the head of the
KDP and announced widespread reforms after the
demonstrations.
KDP officials also argued that the party has gained
sympathy after its offices were attacked by
protesters. The KDP has also been accused of using
violent tactics to suppress protests, including
shooting and killing demonstrators.
Since last February till middle April, thousands of protesters
gathered daily
in Sulaimaniyah and other parts of Kurdistan against
corruption and the lording over Kurdistan region by
two main parties KDP and PUK. Kurdish
protestors demand the ouster of the local Kurdistan
government KRG, calling for improving services and
living conditions and fighting corruption.
After 62 days of protests, the Governorate of of
Sulaimaniyah has banned unlicensed demonstrations in
the city. Heavy Kurdish forces
deployed
in the Sulaimaniyah city to prevent any
demonstrations, and occupied the city center and other parts of
Sulaimaniyah. The Security Committee in Sulaimaniyah
banned on April 18 all sorts of protests.
Most of the demonstrators opposed Massoud Barzani, and the ruling
Kurdistan Democratic Party KDP. Ten people
were
killed and more than 700 others wounded and 220
more have been arrested in clashes between
demonstrators and Kurdish security forces during a
wave or protests that swept Sulaimaniyah. The
Kurdish security forces (Asayish) arrested and
tortured a lot of activists and
journalists.
The protesters demand the Kurdish government and
parliament resign to give way for “early transparent
elections”. They complain about “monopolizing the
economic and political authority,” by the two major
parties of Kurdistan. Many observe allegiance to
either of the two ruling patties a must to get
employed and hence were deprived of the right. Kurdistan suffers from
electric power deficiency but after almost 20 years
of semi autonomy.
For decades, the KDP
of regional president Massoud Barzani and the
PUK of Iraq's President
Jalal Talabani have lorded over the region.
Massoud Barzani and his relatives control a
large number of commercial enterprises in
Kurdistan-Iraq, with a gross value of several
billion US dollars. The family is routinely accused
of corruption and nepotism by Kurdish media as well
as international observers.
Iraq's Kurdish regional government has near
total autonomy and is funded by a share of the
country's oil revenue. The two parties that share
power each command former guerrilla militias that
have been given the status of regional security
forces.
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