Major party claims conditions in Kurdistan 'unfit' for election
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Following a Tuesday meeting between the Kurdistan Region’s two leading parties, the second in line expressed doubts about going forward with the region’s parliamentary elections now scheduled for Sept. 30.
The comments came in a press conference addressing the meeting, between a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) delegation headed by its deputy leader Nechirvan Barzani and Gorran Movement’s leader Omar Said Ali in their headquarters in the city of Sulaimani.
Shorsh Haji, the spokesperson of the Gorran Movement, stated that three points had been stressed in discussions. “First, was the relation between Gorran and the KDP, the second was the Kurds’ role in forming the next government in Baghdad, and third was the parliamentary elections of the Kurdistan Region.”
Firstly, he said, as the leading political entities in the region, both parties agreed on the need to reach a unified view on furthering the Kurdish cause and to collaborate with each other. Regarding Kurds facing other parties in Baghdad, Gorran and KDP agreed also on the importance of defending the "constitutional rights" of Kurdistan.
However, on the topic of the election, the two parties disagreed.
With “the current conditions” that the people of the Kurdistan Region are going through, from “public distrust towards the political process and political parties, to economic and financial uncertainties,” said Haji, the climate is currently “unfit” for an election.
Citing these reasons, his party has deduced that voter turnout—already poor in the May 12 election, though still higher than the rest of Iraq which averaged 44 percent—would be even lower for the region’s ballots.
Haji also claimed, according to information he said his party had received, that the integrity of the list of registered voters was questionable, which would allow for fraud and little transparency.
KDP spokesperson Mahmood Mohammed, from his side, reiterated his party’s firm position against any postponement of the vote after highlighting bilateral relations between the two groups and the need for cooperation and unity in Baghdad.
Editing by John J. Catherine