KRG official says Baghdad is Manipulating Census Data to Reshape Power and Budgets
KRG deputy planning minister Sirwan Mohammed accused Baghdad of manipulating census data for political aims, rejecting Iraq’s 12.67 percent figure for Kurdistan and warning the results could distort budgets, elections, and representation.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - In a stark warning over the future of Kurdistan’s political and economic standing, a senior KRG official says Iraq’s federal government has deliberately manipulated national census data to reshape power, funding, and representation across the country.
On Wednesday, Sirwan Mohammed, deputy minister of planning for the Kurdistan Regional Government, told Kurdistan24 that Baghdad had intentionally altered the results of Iraq’s general population census for political purposes.
He said the federal government is fully aware that the census outcomes will serve as the basis for decisive files such as the national budget, elections, and the allocation of parliamentary seats. For that reason, he added, Baghdad manipulated the data according to a plan aimed at later imposing it as a fait accompli on Kurdish areas outside the KRG’s administrative control, known as the disputed territories.
Addressing population ratios, Mohammed said the figure published by Iraq of 12.67 percent for the Kurdistan Region is “far from the truth.” According to KRG data, he said, the correct ratio is 14.14 percent, excluding Kurdish areas outside the Region’s administration.
He explained that if the Kurdish areas currently under the KRG’s administration are included, the Region’s population would exceed seven million. He also said Iraq, contrary to legal provisions, counted internally displaced persons and refugees residing in the Kurdistan Region under other Iraqi provinces.
The deputy minister revealed that Iraq’s Ministry of Planning had only provided the KRG with indicators, while withholding the detailed raw data. “Despite our meetings with the Iraqi president and prime minister, and despite our decision to participate, Iraq did not implement any of its commitments,” he said. “They did not send the budget, they did not share the data, and they did not establish a data center.”
Mohammed said the KRG still holds a copy of a decision by Iraq’s Council of Ministers stating that census results must not be announced until data validation is completed, yet Baghdad proceeded in violation of that decision.
He called on Kurdish parliamentarians and political forces not to allow the use of what he described as manipulated results in determining the federal budget. He urged that these violations be made a core condition in the formation of Iraq’s next cabinet, warning that the issue poses a serious threat to Kurdistan’s future.
As Baghdad moves forward with the contested figures, Kurdish officials say the battle over census data has become a defining test of power, legality, and representation in Iraq.