ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Barham Salih has refused a proposed nomination for the Iraqi presidency by his Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), saying he prefers to stay and help repair internal problems that are tearing his party apart, sources tell Rudaw.
The PUK has been in turmoil ever since its leader Jalal Talabani, who is also Iraq’s president, suffered a stroke more than a year ago and was flown to Germany.
The leadership issue was to be decided at a January 31 convention. But when that meeting was cancelled, Salih stepped down from a three-person leadership council, and has maintained silence ever since. He has said he will only speak whenever the convention is held.
“The PUK politburo told Barham Salih that if he remains silent he will be nominated for the presidency of Iraq,” a senior party member said on condition of anonymity. “But Barham Salih rejected the offer of the PUK politburo saying that he wants to prove for everyone that he is not seeking higher positions and his demand is to make reforms,” the source added.
In a meeting with the central council, Salih reportedly said that the PUK rank and file were expecting the leadership to make reforms that would revitalize the party. “Our experience of the last few years tells us that we cannot continue in this way,” he added.
Salih is reported to have said: “If you carry out reforms, I will be with you, if not, I cannot continue.”
Salih is expected to meet Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani in the next few days to talk about the situation of the PUK. During his recent trip to Europe, Barzani had spoken with Salih on the phone and had advised him to await his return.
In Talabani’s absence and following parliamentary elections in September in which the PUK lost its place as Kurdistan’s second-largest party, some top party members had called for changes through a convention.
Chief among them have been Salih and Kosrat Rasul Ali. They have blamed Hero Ibrahim Ahmed, the third member of the leadership council and Talabani’s wife, of standing in the way of reforms and a party reshuffle, and of cancelling the convention.
But in an article in her party newspaper this week, Ahmed denied that she was behind postponing the PUK convention.
She wrote in Kurdistani Nwe that she welcomed present frictions inside the party because they would drive much needed change. But she stressed that the PUK needs a “systematic change, not something based on personal moods.”
She also denied she was behind the convention postponement.
Fareed Assasard, member of PUK leadership said, “The issue of postponing the congress was unanimously approved in the last meeting of PUK leadership.”
“Even after the decision was made, Hero Ahmed commented on the decision; the decision was not issued by Hero Ahmed,” Assasard said.But it was revealed for the first time that 12 members of the politburo and leadership council had refused to agree to a postponement of the convention.
A member of the PUK politburo, who preferred to remain anonymous, rejected the claim that the decision to delay the congress was made unanimously. He said that minutes of the meeting were available, and they would show the names of people who had refused to agree.
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