ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) expects to receive more than one million votes in the upcoming Iraqi legislative elections. A KDP politburo member claims that his party is “in a perfect condition.” KDP expects that no other Kurdish political party will be able to secure more than 600,000 votes.
The Iraqi legislative and Kurdistan provincial council elections are scheduled for April 30.
The KDP secured 30 parliamentary seats in the previous Iraqi legislative elections and expects to increase its votes in this month’s polls.
Jafaar Ibrahim, a senior KDP official and the party’s election supervisor, expects that, “The KDP will receive 1.2 million votes in Iraq, including the Kurdistan Region.”
“It is difficult to predict how many parliamentary seats we can win, because the value of one parliamentary seat will only be defined after the election,” he added.
In the previous Iraqi legislative elections in March 2010, the KDP secured 925,000 votes.
According to statistics of the KDP election center, with 1.2 million votes the KDP will be the recipient of the highest number of votes among all Kurdish parties. The study predicts that, with 600,000 votes, the PUK will win the second-highest number of votes among the Kurdish parties. It expects the Change Movement (Gorran) to come third, with 550,000 votes, and the Islamic Union of Kurdistan (Yekgirtu) to be in fourth place with around 185,000 votes.
In the 2010 Iraqi legislative election, KDP gained 925,000 votes, PUK received 675,000, Gorran secured 487,000 and the Islamic Union of Kurdistan got 214,000.
PUK officials say that the condition of their party is not good, because the party faces deep and serious problems, which are not resolved yet.
Hero Ibrahim Ahmed, Jalal Talabni’s wife and Kosrat Rasul Ali, first deputy secretary general of PUK, officially requested Barham Salih, who resigned from his position as the second deputy secretary general of PUK about two months ago, to supervise the PUK’s current election campaign. But Salih reportedly refused.
Sources say that at a meeting attended by Salih and some other PUK politburo members, the PUK election campaign strategy was discussed. One source said that, :In the meeting, Salih suggested that none of the PUK politburo members should be allowed to issue statements on behalf of PUK.”
PUK received 350,000 votes in the recent Kurdistan parliamentary election in September. A member of the PUK election office said, “Beside Kurdistan Region, we expect to receive a considerable number of votes in Kirkuk and Khanaqin areas. Therefore, we predict to gain over 600,000 votes in the Iraqi legislative election.”
Gorran forced its way to the second place in the recent Kurdistan parliamentary election and its leaders believe that their number of votes will be increased.
Zimnako Jalal, head of Gorran’s election office in Sulaimani told Rudaw: “A high committee, which will be supervised by Omer Saeed Ali, is formed to oversee Gorran’s election campaign.”
In the 2010 Iraqi legislative election, Gorran received 487,000 votes. Jalal refused to reveal details of Gorran’s prediction for the upcoming election.
According to the results of the 2010 Iraqi legislative election, the Islamic Union of Kurdistan (IUK) won 214,000 votes and the party’s leaders say they will spare no effort to at least win the same number again.
Samir Salim, head of IUK’s election office, told Rudaw: “The Islamic Union’s secretary general will oversee IUK’s election campaign. This time we will increase our number of Iraqi parliamentary seats.”
In the recent Kurdistan parliamentary election, the Islamic Union lost a considerable number of votes, particularly in the province of Sulaimani.
The Islamic League of Kurdistan received 120,000 votes in the recent Kurdistan parliamentary election and gained 153,000 votes in the 2010 Iraqi legislative election. The party leaders claim they will at least keep their number of votes.
Anwar Sangawi, Islamic League member of politburo and head of its election office, told Rudaw: “We can’t announce any statistics but we are certain that the number of our votes will be increased. We have solved most of our problems, therefore we will keep our voters and will gain more votes compared to the previous elections.”
In the 2010 Iraqi legislative election, the Kurds gained 57 seats out of the 325 Iraqi parliament seats, which counts for 18 percent.
“We expect the Kurdish votes to reach 19 percent,” Ahmed added.
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