Kurds boycotting Iraqi Parliament’s 2018 budget session: Abadi’s presence a political spectacle

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Kurdish factions in the Iraqi parliament boycotted the 2018 budget session, saying the bill does not meet their demands and fails to provide the Kurdistan Region with its constitutionally-enshrined share of the budget.

In a joint statement, Kurdish factions in the Iraqi parliament, who hold over 60 seats, declared they had boycotted the 2018 budget session on Wednesday.

Muthanna Amin, a Kurdish lawmaker who read the statement at a press conference in Baghdad, said they had requested a meeting with the Prime Minister of Iraq, Haider al-Abadi, to discuss the constitutionality of the bill and present the demands of the people of the Kurdistan Region people. The Prime Minister’s office declined the meeting.

After the removal of the authoritarian regime in Iraq in 2003, Kurds agreed with Iraqi officials that the Kurdistan Region’s budget share stood at 17 percent to reflect the needs of its population. Kurdish officials have asserted never to have received the full 17 percent in the past decade, and the share was reduced to 12 percent in the 2018 bill.

Abadi did not meet with the Kurdish parliamentarians, repeatedly delaying the meeting for later this week. They viewed his presence at the budget bill’s session in the Iraqi Parliament as “political flaunting,” Amin said.

He mentioned that the Kurdish lawmakers would not vote for the bill unless changes are made to the Kurdistan Region’s share. Sunnis have also expressed concerns and are against the current budget draft.

Arafat Karam, the head of the largest Kurdish bloc, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), told Kurdistan 24 they agreed with the Parliamentary Speaker who called on Abadi to first meet with the head of parliament factions and the Financial Committee to hear out concerns. The first reading of the budget took place on Monday, and “unfortunately [the meetings] did not happen, and today he attended parliament, a political spectacle for the upcoming elections.”

Karam added that the Kurdish blocs had asked Abadi to make other changes to the bill, opposing the terminology used in the draft such as “the provincial governments in northern Iraq” in reference to the Kurdistan Region, or the financial separation of Halabja Province from the region’s budget, among other demands. None were implemented.

Karam noted that if the bill fails to receive enough votes, it would negatively affect the government and the efforts of international organizations lending money to Iraq and investors.

Kurdish officials have asserted the cutting of the Kurdistan Region’s budget share was another retaliatory measure to the Sep. 25, 2017 referendum on independence. Baghdad has imposed a series of collective punishments on the region, including an international flight ban.

Editing by Nadia Riva