Politics

Iraq deputy speaker calls for relying on 1957 census in Kirkuk provincial elections

Per the census, the Kurdish population constitutes the majority of the oil-rich province, in which Arabs and Turkmen come as the second and third components.

Kurdistan 24 2023/08/12 13:40

Iraqis walk past Kurdish flags in central Kirkuk on the eve of an independence referendum for the autonomous region of Kurdistan, Sept. 24, 2017. (Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP)

Iraq Kirkuk Iraq Provincial election

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Iraq’s deputy speaker of parliament on Saturday called for relying on the country’s 1957 census in Kirkuk’s provincial elections that will take place in December 2023.

Deputy Speaker Shakhawan Abdulla on Saturday met with Iraqi electoral officials as well as relevant lawmakers in a bid to discuss preparations for the upcoming Iraqi provincial elections on December 18, according to a statement from the House of Representatives.

The voter registry should be based on Iraq’s 1957 census in order to reveal the “native components and people of Kirkuk,” Deputy Speaker Abdulla said in the meeting.

Per the census, the Kurdish population constitutes the majority of the oil-rich province, in which Arabs and Turkmen come as the second and third components.

The former Ba'athist regime in later decades undertook a massive Arabization campaign to change the demography of the Kurdish-majority areas, including towns and districts in Mosul, Diyala, and Saladin Provinces.

Iraq’s last full census was conducted in 1987. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the country’s planned census in 2020.

Per the last provincial election result, the Kurdish parties won the majority seats in Kirkuk's council, which was dissolved in 2019.

The Iraqi provincial elections will not include Kurdistan Region, as the semi-autonomous region runs its own polls for the councils.

The Kurdish parties have voiced concerns over the “demographic changes” that had taken place in the province following the events of Oct 16, 2017, in which Kurdish forces were ousted by Iranian-backed Shiite militias and the Iraqi army.

Since then, a significant number of Arab families have moved into the province, threatening the Kurdish-majority demography of the area, a number of parties have previously warned.

As a multi-ethnic province, Kirkuk has long been a subject of dispute between the Iraqi government and the Kurdish leadership.

According to the Iraqi constitution's Article 140, the status of the province is to be decided by its residents by conducting a census, followed by a referendum, and de-Arabization of the area.