KIRKUK, Iraq - Arab and Kurdish parties in multi-ethnic Kirkuk are both counting on the votes of tens of thousands of young new voters who will be casting their ballots for the first time in the Iraqi legislative elections later this month.
The total number of new voters in Kirkuk is 83,548, comprising 10 percent of the total eligible. Out of this number, 38,000 are Arab voters and 36,000 are Kurds, with the rest Turkomen and others.
The Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) says that the new voters show great enthusiasm about casting their ballots, and an election expert believes that the new voters can change the balance of power in Kirkuk.
Those eligible to vote in the April 30 elections were born between 1993 and 1996.
“The participation of the new 10 percent of voters will be effective for Kurds and Arabs, but less for the Turkomen. The 10 percent will change the political equation of the city,” Bukan Abdulla, an observer and election expert, told Rudaw.
The IHEC has announced that, out of 871,221 eligible voters, so far 784,000 have collected the electronic cards they need for voting.
Abdulbasit Darwesh, media director of IHEC in Kirkuk, told Rudaw: “What is notable in the process of distributing electronic cards is the urge of new voters, particularly those who were born between 1994 to 1996. Most of them have visited our offices to collect their cards and are desperately waiting to participate in the election. So far, 748,000 voters, or about 77 percent, have collected their electronic cards.”
After Kurds and Arabs, Turkomens are the third-largest ethnic group in Kirkuk and posses the third-largest number of voters. But their number of new voters is not considerable, and this has raised concerns in the community.
Officials in Kirkuk complain that the local Kurdish population there is greater than Arabs, but the number of new Arab voters is larger because Arabs who have moved to Kirkuk from other parts of Iraq are being allowed to stay, and to vote.
Chalak Latif, who will be voting for the first time, told Rudaw: “I don’t care so much about the rivalry between Kurdish political parties in the city of Kirkuk. I will vote to show that Kirkuk is part of Kurdistan. I urge the new voters to participate in the election so that we can increase the Kurdish vote in Kirkuk.”
There were 787,673 eligible voters in Kirkuk in the 2010 election, out of which 71 percent cast ballots.
