Iraq’s Kurds exercised their political rights in their first election
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    • (SEPTEMBER 16-22)

    According to reports, Iraq’s Kurds on September 21, voted in their first election in four years as their autonomous region grapples with disputes. The Kurds are spread across a number of neighbouring states, where they have long faced hostile governments but have found increasing space to pursue their aspirations to run their own affairs. About 2.8 million Kurds are eligible to vote across the three-province region of northern Iraq. The main agendas of the parties were calls for more to be done to fight corruption and improve the delivery of basic services, as well as on how the energy-rich region’s oil revenues should be spent. The election, the first since July 2009, sees three main parties jostling for position in the 111-seat Kurdish parliament, with implications beyond Iraq. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of regional president Massud Barzani is widely expected to win the largest number of seats, although it is unlikely to obtain a majority on its own. “Today is a historic day in the history of the Kurdish people,” said regional Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, the president’s nephew. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which is in government with the KDP, however faces a challenge from the Goran movement in its Sulaimaniyah province stronghold. The challenge has been heightened by leadership questions as the party’s veteran leader, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, recuperates in Germany from a stroke. Internationally, the focus is likely to be on the region’s drive for greater economic independence from the federal government, with which it is locked in multiple disputes. The region has sought to establish a pipeline that would give it access to international energy markets. It has also capitalised on its reputation for greater safety and stability, as well as a faster-growing economy than the rest of Iraq, to solicit investment independent of the federal government. 1

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