ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The months-long absence of its ailing chief, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, is just one of the many reasons that leaders of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) blame for the party’s lackluster showing in last month’s parliamentary elections in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region.
“There are not one or two issues that got PUK such election results: There are subjective, objective, internal, external, technical and strategic factors behind the results,” said PUK spokesman Azad Jundyani.
Talabani has not been since he suffered a stroke in December and was flown to Germany for treatment. The party went into the September 21 elections for Kurdistan’s own 111-seat assembly without Talabani or another strong leader.
The dominant Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) received the largest number of votes but the PUK, its partner in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), did not fare as well. It lost its standing as the second-strongest party to the opposition Change Movement, Gorran. As a result, the PUK may not be part of the next government.
Jundyani, together with fellow PUK members Adnan Mufti, Farid Assasard and Arif Rushdi were tasked with drawing up a report to address the leadership vacuum and other issues that led to the poll rout.
“We have contacted people to get their views about the reasons that led PUK to the current situation,” said Rushdi, a member of PUK’s leadership.
He told Rudaw that the party still has a chance to get back on its feet.
Despite PUK’s efforts to re-energize and revitalize itself through the five-page report, some members are skeptical about its impact on the PUK’s situation.
Assasard said that the leadership issue will be tackled and settled during the PUK’s plenum, or conference.
The PUK appears divided over whether it should join it should take part in joining the next government with the KDP, with which it signed a Strategic Agreement in 2007.
But both senior and lower-ranking PUK members fear that would be suicidal, because the KDP has emerged even stronger from the polls, while the PUK has little leverage left with its partner.
Goran Azad, a senior PUK member and MP, believes his party should go into opposition in the next government. He also reiterated that PUK must cancel its Strategic Agreement with KDP.
The PUK’s internal turmoil has led to a reshuffle of some senior posts. Hero Ibrahim Ahmed, Talabani’s wife, resigned as head of PUK’s headquarters in Sulaimani, but she has retained her position as a member of PUK’s politburo.
According to a source within the PUK politburo, Ahmed’s resignation has nothing to do with the party’s election defeat.
The source said that Ahmed is not ready to relinquish authority over sensitive positions such as foreign relations, finance, intelligence and the Peshmarga forces to anyone else.
